Verðug dróttning stór
by grrlgeek72
Summary: The Duke of Weselton decides to take by force what he can't get from honest trade. His clever scheme gives Elsa only bad choices as her sister is taken hostage. Will Elsa trade her own life for that of Anna? Inspired by an awesome artwork on tumblr by a-ka, and the drawing used as cover art with their kind permission. Title is Old Norse for "Worthy Queen of Greatness"
1. Arendelle Under Attack

Elsa, Queen of Arendelle, was a prisoner in her own throne room. She was on her knees, hands bound behind her back, glaring at the enemy commander sprawled arrogantly on her throne. His men had dragged her in here from the castle courtyard, tripping her and twisting their fists into her hair to pull her back on her feet. Their intent was to degrade and intimidate her. She was not intimidated. She was, however, afraid. Her fear was more for her sister Anna than for her own safety. Elsa was afraid that her plan to defeat these enemies of Arendelle would fail, leaving the kingdom helpless and the two sisters dead.

Her bun had loosened into a disheveled braid over her shoulder and her bangs dangled over her forehead. There was a small trickle of blood from her temple where one of her hairpins had cut her when they had pulled her up by her hair. A backhanded blow to her face had split her lip. Blood from her cut lip still stained her chin. On her knees, bound, hurt, she was defiant, even though her eyes had fear in them, fear for her sister, for Anna, eyes only for her, not for the enemies who had taken them prisoner or for the sword at her throat.

"_Three days; this all started three days ago. Anna. We'll survive this, I promise,"_ was Elsa's silent vow to her sister. She prayed she could make good on that vow.

* * *

><p>It had been a beautiful fall day in Arendelle. Crisp, cool, sunny; perfect weather for October.<p>

Queen Elsa was visiting one of the small coastal ports on the fringe of her kingdom, Grømstad. She had sailed from the harbor at Arendelle town yesterday morning and arrived in time for lunch with the town officials. She planned to spend another night, then return home on the afternoon tide the next day.

Since her Coronation three months ago and the disastrous blizzard she had created with her magic power of ice and snow, Elsa traveled throughout her realm to visit as many of the towns and hamlets as she could. She wanted to connect with the people of her kingdom and prove to her own satisfaction that they had recovered from the freak weather she had brought down on them in the middle of July.

Today had been a productive day. She had reviewed the current state of the town's economy, met with anyone of any prominence or responsibility, and would be dining with the mayor and other officials of the town this evening. After touring the rest of the town and meeting with most of the people in a general gathering tomorrow, she would travel back to Arendelle on the evening tide.

She was listening to the Mayor describe how the port had grown over the years when there was a stir at the edge of the group surrounding them. Elsa traveled with her Queen's Own Guard, plus there were some of the Town Watch along because of the prominent citizens meeting with her. Her guards recognized the man running up to them as one of the officers from the ship that had brought Elsa and her party to Grømstad. He was out of breath and gasping when he came to attention and saluted the Queen. "Your Majesty!"

Elsa looked at the Lieutenant with some concern; he was very upset about something. "Yes, Lieutenant? What is it?"

He took a deep breath and said, "We have just received a message from Admiral Naismith, Your Majesty! A fast message sloop brought it from Arendelle town. The kingdom is under attack!"

"What?" exclaimed Eric Gunnarsson, Captain of Elsa's Guard. Elsa simply stared at the messenger. Who could be attacking them?

"The Admiral sent this packet, Your Majesty. It is to be opened by you alone. It seems that the Admiral wishes you to return to the ship, and we are to depart immediately and meet him at a point halfway back to Arendelle."

Elsa took the packet. It was in fact marked, "For the Queen's Eyes Only" and sealed with what she knew was the Admiral's command seal used for secret dispatches. She wondered what message he had sent her that was so sensitive that he did not want it to be communicated to her except in private. Her studies had taught her that secret messages rarely brought good news and she doubted that this one would be an exception.

"Captain Gunnarsson, let us return immediately to the ship. Mayor Berdahl, I'm afraid I must cut my visit short. If the kingdom is under attack, I must ask you to begin mustering your militia and prepare to defend this port. Without more information, we don't know how widespread this attack may prove to be." Berdahl nodded to her, then gestured at his Town Watch Captain to begin to spread the word to the militia. The local townspeople dispersed to begin preparing for any possible local attack.

Elsa and her guard contingent moved quickly back to their ship. Once they were aboard the orders to cast off were given and the ship began to sail back toward Arendelle to the designated rendezvous point. Elsa went to her cabin with only Captain Gunnarsson accompanying her. She sat at the small desk and tore open the envelope, extracted the message within and began to read while Gunnarsson stood at attention beside the cabin door.

Eric had served Elsa since her father's death at sea made her the Queen. He had been in the guard for almost 19 years, and had been promoted to Captain by her father a year before that ill-fated sea voyage. For three years, the job of guarding Elsa was almost too easy; she was reclusive and rarely left her room, much less the castle. At her coronation ball it became clear why she was so reclusive, and his job became much, much harder. In the three months since then he had learned to read her body language, subtle and restrained though it was. He could tell that whatever was in that message was extremely disturbing to her.

"Your Majesty?" She had read the message twice, more slowly the second time, and was now staring at the bulkhead of the sea cabin, clearly deep in thought, a slight frown on her face.

She turned to him and said, "Captain, apparently the Duke of Weselton has decided to take revenge for the slight he feels was done to him at my coronation. He has sent an attack force to loot Arendelle."

Captain Gunnarsson mulled this over for a moment, then replied, "But Your Majesty … that doesn't make any sense. He knows what you can do with your magic. How does he think his force can overcome that?"

She stood, crumpling the message form in her hands and throwing it viciously across the cabin. "Easily, Captain. His force has managed to take my sister hostage. The message sent along by the Admiral makes it clear that any attempt by me or any of our armed forces to defend Arendelle will result in her death."

Eric grimaced. "Did the Admiral make any suggestions?"

Elsa was pacing in the small space allowed in the sea cabin. She was short enough to do so without hitting her head on the overhead beams. "No. He said we needed to confer in person, which is why he is sailing to meet us. He feels it is too dangerous for me to return to Arendelle until we know more."

She looked at Eric, anguish clear on her face. "Of course, Anna is in those … those thugs' control. What about her danger?" she asked bitterly.

Eric had no answer. She had expected none.

"Are there any orders for me, Your Majesty?" Eric asked after she began pacing again.

"No, Captain. I would prefer that the news of my sister being held hostage remain confidential for now. You may inform the rest of your men and the ship's captain of everything else. If anyone has any questions, simply tell them that we will be meeting with the Admiral to plan the best way to defend Arendelle against this treachery."

He saluted, then left. He knew she needed to deal with this in private for a bit. It would only take a few hours until they were able to rendezvous with Admiral Naismith and whoever else he brought along for the planning.

* * *

><p>"She's going to kill you, you know," Anna crossed her arms and glared at her captors. She was putting up a brave front although she was really very worried about the situation. Elsa was away from the city, and the Weselton force had been very ingenious about sailing into the harbor under false colors. There were four ships in all, each in a standard merchant configuration. No one had realized that they carried at least two hundred soldiers in their holds until it was too late.<p>

Even two hundred men was hardly a sufficient force to conquer Arendelle. The Arendelle Navy had ten frigates and twenty brigs and sloops of war for anti-piracy work. However, most of these ships were at sea at any one time on those anti-piracy patrols. There were two regiments of Royal Marines as well, over a thousand men, some of whom served aboard the ships, but most of whom were on duty in the kingdom.

But the Duke apparently had clever advisers helping him set up this scheme. They all knew that Elsa's magic alone could probably overpower a large force of troops, and that power combined with the Navy and Marines meant Arendelle was a match for a very sizable military force, should one be foolish enough to attack. So they had figured out the one way to neutralize Elsa and the Navy and Marines in one bold stroke: take Princess Anna hostage. With Anna under their control, they had a winning hand that could trump magic powers and muskets combined.

Apparently, Weselton had sent agents into Arendelle in advance of the disguised attack forces. These agents had observed Anna's movements in the town and planned accordingly. Once the ships arrived, the agents had followed her into an inn where she was planning on meeting Kristoff. There, they had simply sat down at her table, discreetly showed her their weapons and informed her that they would kill her and several other people in the inn if she did not some along with them quietly and without a fuss.

With fake smiles plastered on all their faces, Anna accompanied the men to one of the ships and went on board with them.

When Kristoff arrived at the inn a little later, he was surprised to hear that Anna had left with a small party of men. That was very much unlike her. She had never stood him up before when they had plans to meet. He felt a deep sense of unease about the situation and returned to the castle to talk to Kai. Perhaps she had left a message for him there. He didn't think that was likely, but he didn't know what else to do.

Once Anna was on board their ship, the Weselton commander had sent prepared message packets to the castle and to the Admiralty, spelling out their demands that neither Elsa nor the Arendelle Navy and Marines make any aggressive moves against the invading force, or Anna's life was forfeit. He then sat back to wait for a response to his demands. He knew Elsa was out-of-town and it would take a day for her to receive his demands and then return to Arendelle.

"She will be sooo angry with you guys you won't believe it! What do you think you can do against her?" Anna demanded.

"I think I can threaten to kill her beloved sister if she is so foolish as to test my resolve, Your Highness!" sneered the Weselton commander. "I suggest that you stop testing my patience. I grow weary of your whining. Maybe if I send your tongue to the Queen, it will suggest to her that I am serious, deadly serious in this matter. And it will shut you up."

Anna sniffed at his suggestion, but wisely decided that putting on a brave face didn't require her to keep talking. She flounced over to a chair and plopped down to wait for whatever the commander had in mind.

He grinned at her and said, "Never fear, Your Highness. My orders are to keep you hale and healthy, so long as your sister does exactly what we tell her to do. You will be our honored guest while we help ourselves to the riches of Arendelle, then sail back to Weselton with you and Queen Elsa."

This startled Anna. "What? Why?"

"Very simple. Your sister's powers are neutralized only so long as we have you as a hostage to her good behavior. So therefore, **you** must come along. The Duke wants **her** in Weselton to punish her for her monstrous sorcery. Once he has tried and executed her for her witchcraft, you may return to Arendelle and take the throne. He's doing you a favor, you should be grateful for this boon!" and the man laughed at the expression on Anna's face.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

This story may be considered an 'alternate timeline' version of "Protector of the Dominion". In that story, Elsa was present when the Duke's ships arrived, and she fought them off with her ice magic and a small army of snowlems. In THIS story, she was off visiting a different town. And the Duke was smarter about the invasion; he figured out a way to neutralize Elsa's magic by kidnapping Anna and using her as a hostage. Many of the OCs will be familiar to those who have read my stories, as they appear regularly in my headcanon.

The entire story was inspired by the cover photo, a drawing that A-KA put up on their tumblr blog, and has given me permission to use for the cover art of this story. THANK YOU! You can find them at akapost dot tumblr dot com You guys all know how to translate that into the correct format, right? (wink)

Strap in for a wild ride, fans and followers. This one will be a little darker than my usual work. I think. Not sure. I'm just the typist for my muse. She's off doing all the work as a background process, then thumps me on the head when she wants me to start typing.


	2. Of Hostages and Panic Attacks

"She's WHAT?" Kristoff demanded.

He was in the Throne room with Kai and Admiral Naismith. The Admiral had come to the castle immediately to meet with the Royal Council and review the message that had been delivered from the Weselton forces.

"Being held hostage, Master Bjorgman. I'm sorry," the Admiral apologized. He seethed internally at the situation that he found himself in. His hands were tied while Anna was in danger. He had immediately dispatched a fast sloop to inform Elsa of what was going on, and he himself would be sailing in a short while to meet her and discuss what their options were. He was afraid there weren't any good ones.

"What are you going to do about it?" Kristoff almost shouted. He was berating himself for being late.

"Nothing," replied Naismith. "Nothing until I can meet with the Queen and discuss with her what she wants to do about this situation."

Kristoff fumed, but he knew the Admiral was right. Elsa was the Queen, AND she was Anna's sister. They couldn't do anything to put Anna at risk until Elsa was back and part of the planning.

"I'm going with you." Kristoff's determined expression dared the Admiral to say no.

"Very well. We need to go immediately. We will be departing from the castle gate facing away from the town in a small sloop. I don't want it to be obvious to the Weselton force that I am leaving," Naismith said.

He turned to Kai, "Colonel Nordholm is in command of the forces here in my absence. He has strict orders to make no hostile move toward the Weselton ships. He is also going to brief the Royal Council in my absence. They should be arriving shortly for the meeting."

"What about Queen Elsa? Will you be returning here with her?" Kai asked the Admiral.

"Not immediately. We will meet her ship at sea, then put a small party ashore a short distance up the coast. We'll join up with a troop of Marines in the forest on the other side of the hills. I don't want Her Majesty to come anywhere near this town until we have a better understanding of what the Weselton commander is willing to negotiate. Colonel Nordholm knows where the rendezvous point in the forest is, and will be sending messengers to us with any updates."

Kai nodded his understanding. A footman came into the throne room and addressed Admiral Naismith. "Sir! There is a group of Weselton men at the courtyard gate demanding to speak to you. They offer their parole, but say that they must speak to you immediately."

"Very well. I will meet with them at the castle gates. Have the guards take their weapons, but tell them not to threaten those thugs in any way."

Kai, the Admiral and Kristoff followed the footman back to the portico in front of the doors of the castle. The three of them waited while the footman hurried across the courtyard to bring the Weselton men inside.

It surprised Naismith to see that the little party included the commander of the attacking force. "What are we discussing, sir?" he growled.

The Weselton commander was insolent as he smiled at the Admiral's obvious distaste. "The terms of your surrender, Admiral. Nothing more, nothing less."

"I cannot discuss terms without instructions from the Queen," Naismith huffed.

A sneer from the commander, "I realize that, Admiral. That's why I insist you take me to meet with the Queen."

"You can't be serious," replied the Admiral.

"I am deadly serious. I trust you with my life as long as my men hold the Princess Anna. I am authorized by the Duke to negotiate with your Queen. So take me to her. I am unarmed, and I give you my parole that I will attempt nothing untoward when I meet with her."

Naismith thought this over. He really had no choice. "Very well. But you will be blindfolded the entire time. I will not expose all of Arendelle's secrets to you." He gestured to one of the Queen's guard to blindfold the man, then they reentered the castle. The other Weselton men were escorted to exit the courtyard and return to their ship.

Once on the sloop, Kristoff paced up and down the deck, worried about Anna and worried about what Elsa would do. It had only been three months since her Coronation. She had worked hard to make up for freezing the kingdom and continued working to rebuild her relationship with her sister. He and Anna often talked about how Elsa felt she had to work to make up for what she perceived as her failures. He also scowled, thinking that he should have been with Anna, that he could have made a difference.

Naismith was lost in his own ideas about how he could have, should have prevented something like this from happening. Arendelle had been a small, out-of-the-way kingdom, of little note to the powers of Europe or even their closer neighbors, a peaceful kingdom, long past engaging in the predations of their Viking ancestors. Arendelle was content to keep its own counsel, fighting off pirates who preyed on its merchants but not having any desire to conquer anyone.

When the secret of Queen Elsa's magic became public, that changed. He should have realized that there was now going to be more scrutiny of the little kingdom. The Duke of Weselton had apparently decided that if he could not enrich himself through honest trade, he would simply take what he wanted. The more cynical side of the Admiral worried that some kingdom might decide that Queen Elsa was a weapon, a weapon to be acquired and used. He still wasn't sure that wasn't one of the Duke's motivations for this attack. The Duke may intend to use Princess Anna as leverage to force Queen Elsa to serve his ambitions, ambitions that went beyond looting Arendelle.

He shook himself out of this grim reverie to notice that Kristoff had slumped to sit with his back against the mast and was forlornly staring off into nowhere. Naismith walked over and asked, "Master Bjorgman, are you okay?"

Kristoff looked up at him and replied, "No. I should have been there, I could have stopped them from kidnapping her."

Naismith shook his head. "No, you couldn't have. Master Bjorgman, think it through. Those men who took the Princess must have threatened her with weapons. Would she have gone with them otherwise, or would she have cried out for help?"

Kristoff had to admit, "She would have made a huge fuss. Anna is fearless, sometimes too fearless." He got to his feet to stand next to the Admiral. "But what's your point?"

"If you had been there, Master Bjorgman, what could you have done? You carry a belt knife, correct?" It was a rhetorical question.

"Yeah. And by the way, call me 'Kristoff', would you? I don't know any 'Master Bjorgman'."

"Kristoff, then. What could you do with a knife against three men who most likely had pistols? No one saw them display weapons, but we both know they must have shown something to Princess Anna to convince her to go along with them."

Kristoff had to admit that the Admiral had a point. That didn't make him feel any better, and he tried to continue to protest, "But, if I were there..."

"You would have done nothing to put the Princess in danger. If they had threatened to kill her at the first sign of your resistance, you would have done nothing to provoke them. At best, you would have been taken captive with her. However, since you have no value as a hostage, they would probably have killed you the moment they had you on their ship and out of sight." finished the Admiral grimly. "These men are vicious and desperate. Their force is too small to accomplish anything without the leverage their hostage gives them."

This recitation did nothing to relieve Kristoff's guilt at not being there for Anna, but his honesty forced him to accept everything the Admiral said, including the 'no value as a hostage' part. Anna would care, and maybe Elsa, but her concern for Anna would far outweigh her concern for him, as it should. Hell, HE cared more for Anna than he did for himself. If he could trade his life for her safety right now, he would do it without thinking twice about it.

"What are we going to do?" he looked to Naismith for an answer.

"I don't know. For one thing, I don't know exactly what the Weselton Commander is going to say to Queen Elsa. He refuses to discuss it with me." The man was blindfolded and down in the hold under guard where he couldn't see where they were or where they were going. Naismith had no intention of giving away any more information than he absolutely had to.

"For another, I don't know what the Queen is willing to do for the Princess. Theoretically, Arendelle has had a policy of 'no negotiations for hostages' for a long time."

"You **know** that Elsa, uh, I mean, the Queen won't let them kill Anna, policy or no policy!" Kristoff was as sure of that as he was the sun would come up tomorrow morning.

"I'm afraid I do know that," replied the Admiral. "In truth, I could not in good conscience advise Her Majesty to refuse to negotiate for her sister. Theory is one thing, but after what they have been through … no, just … no."

Kristoff could only nod glumly. The two women had been separated for thirteen years and had just begun to rebuild their relationship as sisters and best friends. Even if Elsa would be willing to follow the policy the Admiral had mentioned and let Anna die, her own death would follow shortly afterwards, once Elsa had taken her vengeance on the Weselton force. She would go berserk, killing every last man of them. She would sail to Weselton and kill the Duke. She would be happy to die in that attempt if that's what it took. She might die anyway. She simply wouldn't want to go on living if Anna were dead. He knew that in his gut, from everything he and Anna had talked about since the Great Freeze and everything he had seen with his own eyes every time the two sisters were together.

Naismith looked at the position of the sun in the sky and commented, "About an hour until we meet up with the Queen. We'll go aboard her ship and brief her, then see what this Weselton man has to say." He walked toward the bow to watch for the Queen's ship. Kristoff sat back down to brood.

* * *

><p>Anna was pacing in the Captain's cabin of the ship where she was being held prisoner. She had to admit they were treating her well, if she ignored the whole 'being held prisoner under threat of death' thing. She worried about what Kristoff would do when he found out. She really worried about Elsa and what she would do when <strong>she<strong> found out. Anna knew something that no one else did; that Elsa was still very fragile emotionally and was subject to panic attacks.

The two of them had discussed it shortly after Elsa brought back summer. Elsa had taken Anna for a walk in the garden for a private conversation, entrusting Anna with her soul and her sanity. Since then, there had been several episodes when Anna had comforted Elsa in the privacy of her room when the stress of governing the kingdom had overcome the Queen. Elsa had just enough control, hard-won over thirteen long years, to get behind closed doors when she felt she had an attack coming on.

Both of them had nightmares, they comforted each other when that happened. The panic attacks were different, more severe. Anna remembered the first time she had seen Elsa experience one.

It had only been a few days after Elsa had explained her emotional fragility to Anna and asked for her understanding and help dealing with it. Anna had come to dinner and was surprised to find out that Elsa wouldn't be joining her. Instead, Gerda had passed along a message from her sister explaining that she wasn't feeling well, would skip dinner, and could Anna join her later? Anna noticed that Gerda had an odd expression on her face as she gave Anna the message.

Hurrying through dinner, Anna went to Elsa's room as quickly as she could, not sure what she would find. She knocked, called out, "Elsa?" and waited for her sister to give her permission to enter. They had promised each other never to lock the other out ever again, but it was still courteous to wait. There was no sound from within the room. Anna took a deep breath and went in. "Elsa?" she called again.

Looking around the room, Elsa was nowhere to be seen. Anna heard a noise and walked around the bed to find Elsa on her hands and knees, vomiting into her chamber pot. "Elsa!" Anna cried and knelt next to her sister, putting an arm around her shoulders. It was clear that there was nothing else for her sister to bring up, but she was still convulsing and gagging. Anna could feel her trembling as she held her.

Finally, Elsa sat back on her heels and leaned into Anna's embrace. "Help me … Anna … I'm so scared," she whimpered. Tears leaked down her cheeks and her hands were shaking.

"I've got you, honey. You're safe. I'm here," Anna tried to reassure her. She looked around, noticed that Elsa had been undressing for bed when she was overcome. Her dress, stockings, and shoes were in an untidy heap near her wardrobe, and she was dressed only in her undershift. Anna hugged her and said, "Elsa, come on, let's get you cleaned up and in bed, okay?"

Elsa was dazed and passive. Anna was able to coax her to sit on the chair next to her bed, where she rocked back and forth hugging herself and weeping. Anna wet a towel with water from a pitcher next to Elsa's wash basin, and cleaned her hands and face. Then she poured some water into a cup, and held it to Elsa's lips saying, "Here, drink a little. I'll send for some tea once I've got you in bed, okay?" Elsa swallowed a few sips of the water.

Once that was done, Anna rummaged in one of the dresser drawers for a nightgown and got Elsa out of her shift and into the nightdress. Then she helped her get into bed. Elsa immediately curled herself into a tight ball and began crying even harder. Anna pulled off her own dress, kicked off her shoes and crawled in with Elsa, wrapped herself around the weeping girl and tried to comfort her with soothing whispers and gentle caresses. After a few minutes, Elsa turned to face Anna and buried her face in her sister's neck. Anna could feel her warm breath and the tears as they fell onto her skin. "Shh...it's okay, I'm here. You're safe, honey. Let the tears come until you feel better."

Gradually Elsa calmed down and her breathing became more regular. Anna continued to croon soft soothing sounds until she felt Elsa relax into a doze. She let her sleep until she was sure Elsa wouldn't wake up if Anna got out of bed. Moving carefully so as not to wake her sister, Anna slipped out of bed. She heard a soft knock on the door and went to peek out. It was Gerda.

"Your Highness," Gerda whispered. "Is the Queen okay? May I help you? I have some … experience … with her condition."

Anna knew that Gerda was one of the three people who had known about Elsa's magic before the Coronation day disaster. She nodded and opened the door for Gerda to slip in.

"She's asleep for now. But she was sick to her stomach before. Do you think some tea would help?" Anna spoke softly so they wouldn't wake Elsa.

"Yes. I'll bring some after I clean up the room for you. And something to eat. For both of you."

"Thank you, Gerda. This is new and … a little overwhelming for me," Anna admitted. Elsa stirred and moaned softly on the bed.

"You best get back in bed with her for now. She needs your warmth to comfort her. Otherwise she may start to have nightmares," Gerda shooed Anna back into the bed, then quietly tidied the room and left to bring back the food and tea for the two women.

Elsa relaxed again once she felt Anna in her arms, then positioned herself so her head lay where she could hear Anna's heartbeat. Anna could tell from the change in her breathing that she was falling more deeply asleep. When Gerda checked back on them, she found them both asleep. She decided that the tea could wait until morning; they needed the rest.

When morning came Elsa was better. She had a headache, but the panic attack had passed and she could function again. Feeling more herself, she even poked at Anna and tickled her to wake her. This was something she had practice at; Elsa always woke up earlier than Anna. "Morning, sleepyhead. Wakey wakey!"

Since Anna wasn't responding, Elsa took one of Anna's braids and tickled her nose. Anna sneezed and woke up, very grumpy. She looked around through half-shut, bleary eyes, focused on Elsa, groaned and then flopped back on the pillow. "Go 'way, wanna sleep..." and rolled over and pulled the blanket over her head.

Elsa giggled, then pulled the blanket away from Anna's face and sprinkled a little snow on her neck. This caused Anna to sit bolt upright and squawk, "ELSA! No fair!" while throwing a pillow. Ducking the pillow, Elsa laughed and hopped out of bed.

She went over to the dressing table. There was a tray with a teapot, cups and some skolebrød. Gerda must have slipped in with the tray recently as the tea was still hot. Elsa poured a cup and took it to Anna, saying "Here, honey, this will help."

Anna accepted the peace-offering with a pout, drank a sip and got out of bed to snatch one of the custard-filled pastries before Elsa ate them all. Anna had been too slow on one previous occasion and had learned her lesson.

Taking her own cup and pastry, Elsa went to sit in the window bay and watch the gulls flying over the fjord. Anna joined her and they sat companionably in the morning sun for a while. Finally, Anna swallowed the last of her pastry, licked custard and powdered sugar off her fingers and asked Elsa, "You okay this morning?" in a soft voice. Elsa nodded and sipped at her tea.

"Want to talk about it?"

Elsa took a deep breath and said, "No, but I should. I promised you I would talk to you about it. And … you really are helping me deal with it." The gratitude in her eyes as she looked at her sister warmed Anna more than the sunlight could.

"Soooo...what brought this on?" Anna asked gently.

A sigh, then, "Stress. I think it was the stress of the last couple of weeks catching up with me. You know it's been one thing after another trying to fix the mess I made with the whole 'Great Freeze' thing, I haven't been getting enough sleep, skipped a meal or two, and let myself get too tired. What triggered it was a flashback, I think. I was discussing some castle repairs with Kai when I suddenly had a vision of being locked up in that dungeon, with Hans and the guards coming to kill me."

She trembled, the tea-cup rattling on the saucer she held in her hands. Anna scooted over to hug her.

"Shhh...okay, I get it. Don't call up that memory again. We can talk about it again tonight if you want, and again and again; however long it takes to lay those ghosts to rest." Elsa leaned on Anna's shoulder and nodded.

They had talked about plans for the day for a little longer over more tea, then went their separate ways to prepare for the day's work.

That was the first time; it had not been the last. The attacks now happened less often but had not stopped altogether. Anna hoped that this invasion situation would not push Elsa into another one, with no one to help her deal with it.

"_Please, Elsa, you need to be strong when you find out. We'll get through this, I know you'll figure something out, you're the brilliant one."_ Anna's thoughts chased themselves in circles as she worried.

"_Okay, Anna, think. What would Elsa do? She'd figure out some way to fool these weasel's bastards into thinking they had a simpering weakling as a prisoner. Lull them to sleep until there's a chance to escape."_

Anna felt confident she could play that part. She did it regularly. It was a defense mechanism, although she didn't think of it that way. In her heart, she worried about Elsa being deposed by people who hated her. Anna thought that if she acted the part of the goofy little sister, no one would ever consider putting her on the throne in Elsa's place. _"Okay, sis, I can do this. One goofy, simpering Princess coming up. I'll distract them until you can figure out a way to put 'em on ice!"_

She was too worried about Elsa to pat herself on the back for the metaphor.


	3. Stalemate

When Elsa's ship rendezvoused with the Admiral's, Naismith and everyone he had brought along transferred to the larger ship to return to Arendelle.

He explained to Elsa who the blindfolded man was and became alarmed when a patch of ice appeared on the deck around them. "Your Majesty, we need to hear what this man has to say. I know this is difficult for you, but he has given his parole..."

She shook herself, waved her hand and removed the ice. "I understand, Admiral. Forgive my momentary loss of composure." Her fear had spiked when faced with the man who had kidnapped Anna.

The Admiral nodded and said, "I think we should meet with him in the Captain's cabin, only the three of us. You, me and Captain Gunnarsson. The man has given his parole, but I don't trust him alone with you."

"I agree. Let's get this over with," Elsa went into the cabin with Eric, settled herself in a chair, clasped her hands in her lap and waited for the Admiral to bring the Weselton man to her. Eric stood at her right hand, ready to defend her if necessary even though he didn't display any weapons.

When the Weselton man entered, the Admiral said to him, "You may remove the blindfold now."

He was tall and dark-haired, with quick brown eyes that took in the cabin, then settled on Elsa. An ironic bow as he said, "Your Majesty, how good of you to meet with me."

"You'll excuse me if I don't consider this a social occasion, I'm sure," Elsa's voice was under tight control. "What have you to say to me?"

"Direct and to the point. Good, this won't take long then," he replied. "The Duke of Weselton has sent me and my men to extract what he considers fair payback for the insult given him at your coronation..."

Naismith interrupted him gruffly, "He had his men try to kill her! He's lucky we didn't execute him and those two thugs for attempting to murder our Queen instead of sending him home."

"Ah, but there are always two sides to a story, Admiral," smirked the Commander. "The Duke feels that he was justified in protecting Arendelle from a sorceress that was killing the entire realm with her magic."

Elsa flinched. Three months wasn't long enough for her to be completely reconciled to what she had done, no matter how hard she was working at making up for it. Deep inside of her a tiny voice agreed with the Weselton man. She stifled that internal voice and said, "So, what exactly does this payback consist of?"

"In three days, the Duke wants our ships loaded with tribute. He sent a list along, you both received copies," he glanced at the Admiral and Elsa. "Once the ships are loaded, you and the Princess come with us back to Weselton."

"Why would I do that?" Elsa was almost snarling with indignation at the demands. The list of tribute the Duke had sent along would impoverish Arendelle. This late in the season, starvation for a part of the population would be a real risk.

"If you don't, we kill our 'guest'," sneered the Commander.

She was beginning to get angry; she realized the anger was her fear in disguise. Just the bare statement that he would kill Anna caused her heart to pound. The thought of Anna helpless in this man's control was sickening.

Elsa glared at him. "Be careful, Commander. My sister is precious to me, but you can only kill her once, at which time her value diminishes to zero. I know that you wouldn't do that unless it were a last resort."

"What makes you think that, Your Majesty?" Eric wondered if there was a small crack in the man's swagger?

"Because once she is dead, there is absolutely nothing that prevents me from killing every last one of you." Elsa's voice was a flat monotone, her face a stony mask. Eric shuddered. Her lack of expression was far more frightening than any explicit show of emotion. He hoped the Weselton man understood what Elsa was capable of doing if something happened to Anna.

"And any of you scum that Her Majesty misses, the Navy and Marines will be glad to clean up," growled Naismith.

"So, let us agree that although I have leverage, it's not absolute. However it is enough, I think, to encourage you to agree to the Duke's terms. Your sister's life can be purchased by paying the tribute."

"What about the demand that both of us accompany you to Weselton?" Elsa asked. "What purpose does that serve?"

"Isn't it obvious? In order for us to return safely to Weselton, your magic and the armed forces of Arendelle must remain neutralized. You and the Princess must come along to ensure there is no ambush lying in wait for us as we sail to Weselton."

"And they will be allowed to return once your expedition is back in Weselton?" Naismith interjected.

"The Princess will be returned unharmed."

"The Queen?" Gunnarsson asked.

The Weselton Commander smiled cruelly. "Why, the Duke intends to try her as a witch. He's a traditionalist who thinks burning at the stake is appropriate for witches."

Elsa was speechless at the man's bravado. The Duke must be mad to think that she would agree to any of this. She felt her gorge rising as the nightmare that had haunted her since she was a child was presented to her as her fate. The thought that she would be condemned as a monstrous sorceress and burned was a foul taste at the back of her throat. She felt her control slipping and struggled to push the fear back down.

Naismith was outraged. "So your proposal is that we impoverish the kingdom and allow you to murder our Queen? And in return you will not kill Princess Anna."

"Neatly summarized, Admiral. But don't forget, you'll get the Princess back and she can ascend the throne of her dead sister. So it's not as though Arendelle won't still have a queen." The man's brash arrogance was breathtaking.

Literally, in Elsa's case. She felt light-headed and faint and was having trouble breathing. She felt a panic attack coming on, the emotional overload of the day's events were threatening to overwhelm her self-control. It would be disastrous to show that weakness in front of this enemy. She silently chanted her mantra while maintaining a stony silent glare at the Weselton man. She clenched her hands so hard she was afraid she would break a bone but the cabin remained free of ice.

"It seems we are in somewhat of a stalemate, then, Commander," Elsa finally said. She fought to keep her voice under control, to show him none of her rage and fear.

"How so?"

"You have Anna as hostage, but you can't kill her out of hand or you will all die. We cannot attack unless we are willing to let you kill her. The Duke's plan only works if I agree to allow him to loot my kingdom and kill me while trusting him to keep his word that my sister will be released unharmed once he has accomplished that."

He said nothing; her analysis was correct and he had no intention of giving her any advantage by admitting it.

She stood and gestured at Eric. "Blindfold him again and return him to the hold. This decision will not be made in haste. Commander, your parole still holds, and I will not violate it. But I assume you can understand why I insist on some time to mull over this situation and make my decision?"

He shrugged, "Not too much time, Your Majesty. If I am not returned to Arendelle by the morning, well...my second in command does not have my appreciation for your integrity. I wouldn't want him to do anything … impulsive."

Eric blindfolded him, took him by the arm and led him away. Once their footsteps had faded beyond the closed door, Elsa sat down again, her hands shaking. The Admiral gave her a moment to be sure she had her emotions under control, then he said, "Your Majesty, are you actually considering agreeing to this abomination?"

She looked at him in bleak despair. "What choice do I have? You know full well what I will do if something happens to Anna. You are one of the three people who know exactly what we went through before my magic was exposed. I had lost my sister for thirteen years; we've only been reunited for three months. I can't lose her again and stay sane. The Duke will find that he has created the monster he fears."

He did understand the anguish she was dealing with. "I have no good advice to offer, Your Majesty. This is a dilemma with only bad options. Unless we could find some way to free the Princess..."

They sat in silence until Eric returned. "Your Majesty, may I ask what you're thinking?" He could tell from the expression on the Admiral's face that he wasn't thinking anything good was going to come of this.

Elsa sat silent, her eyes unfocused and staring at the bulkhead, ignoring the two men in the cabin with her. Neither felt comfortable pressing her. Finally, she shook her head and stood up to pace back and forth in the tiny cabin.

"The key to this puzzle is Anna. If we can somehow get Anna away from their grasp, we then have a free hand to deal with the invasion force in any way that we wish." Elsa could have been talking to herself for all the attention she paid to Naismith and Gunnarsson. She stopped and looked at them speculatively. "I have an idea, but neither one of you will like it."

Eric and Naismith looked at each other, then back to Elsa. "We are here to serve you and Arendelle, Your Majesty. However little we may like it, it will be your order, and we will obey," said Naismith. Eric nodded his agreement.

"Sit, then, and let me tell you a Crown Secret." The expression on Elsa's face was a contorted grimace. This secret had been privy to only the Royal Family for centuries, but she was desperate and could think of no other escape from their dilemma.

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The Weselton Commander's internal emotions were not as sanguine as his outward appearance. He was a brave man, personally selected by the Duke for this mission. He knew that his chances of success were not as good as the odds that Elsa would kill all of them out of hand in a do-or-die attempt to rescue Anna, starting by cutting his throat and feeding him to the fish.

He sat and sweated for almost an hour before Captain Gunnarsson returned and pulled him to his feet.

"Come on, you. The Queen has your answer." They went up onto the deck.

"Take off the blindfold. I want him to see how serious I am about this." Elsa's voice.

He blinked to clear the tears caused by the sudden glare when the blindfold was removed and he stood in the bright sunlight.

Elsa glared at him. "I will agree to your terms. Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. I will present myself at the gates of the castle courtyard and surrender to you. I will give the necessary orders to withdraw all Arendelle troops from the city and move any Navy ships at least 5 miles outside the harbor. I will also provide a signed decree ordering all citizens of Arendelle to follow your orders with regard to the tribute. In addition, I will provide an order that allows you to take possession of the castle, which is far more defensible than your ships, giving you two strong points. The only troops left in the castle are my personal bodyguard, and they will be ordered to withdraw to the Marine Barracks and stand down with the Marines."

The Weselton man forced himself not to react. He had never dreamed that she would go along with any of it, much less all of it. And she was offering him the defensive capabilities of the castle, which was a bonus. He put an arrogant smile on his face and bowed, "A wise decision, Your Majesty. I will see you in the morning, then."

Elsa snapped her fingers and the Admiral handed the Commander a dispatch case. "These are the decrees I described to you. The Admiral will be sending messengers to all of our troops to stand down and withdraw to barracks. You may take possession of the castle two hours after we return you to your ships."

She took a step closer to him and looked into his eyes. "Know this, Commander. If anything, anything **at all** happens to my sister, you are a dead man. Everyone with you is a dead man. The Duke will be a dead man. Even if I die, Arendelle will take its vengeance on Weselton, burn it to the ground and sow it with salt and then we'll mail the butcher's bill to hell to add to the Duke's account. We'll make Ragnarök look like a summer picnic. Is that clear enough for you?"

This time he could not control his flinch at the savage determination in her eyes. He could see it echoed in the Admiral, her Guard Captain, and every man watching this little scene on the deck of the ship. "Perfectly clear, Your Majesty."

"Get him on his way, Admiral!" and Elsa turned away and strode to the bow of the ship, as far away as she could get from him. She left small icy footprints on the deck.

The Admiral gestured and they blindfolded him again. "I'm putting you on the fast sloop that brought us here. You'll be back in Arendelle before sunset."

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Once the Weselton Commander had left on the message sloop the Admiral ordered their frigate to set sail. They would go ashore and meet the Marines and get to the encampment where they would get together with Colonel Nordholm and inform him of the plan. Elsa had been right; neither Eric nor the Admiral liked her idea. But neither of them had anything better to offer, so … her plan became **the** plan.

Kristoff came up to her; he hesitated to say anything. He was afraid that she would blame him for Anna's kidnapping. As though reading his mind, she turned to him, laid her hand on his arm, looked into his warm brown eyes with sympathy and said, "It's not your fault, Kristoff. There's nothing you could have done to change what happened. If there is blame, I accept the responsibility for not insisting on better security for Anna."

Startled, he said, "But, Anna always hated being followed around by the guards. And there's never been any reason for it in the past."

"The key phrase in that sentence is 'in the past'. I should have realized that everything changed once my magic power was common knowledge. And that the obvious way to sidestep that power was to blackmail me in some way to neutralize it." Her words were tinged with bitter self-loathing.

"Not you alone, Your Majesty, not even primarily you." Naismith had joined Elsa and Kristoff. Gunnarsson was with him. "If anyone should have figured out the glaring security problem created by the changed situation after your magic was exposed, it should have been those of us responsible for that security." Eric nodded to indicated his agreement with what Naismith was telling Elsa. "You would be justified in dismissing us and seeking better advisers."

Elsa allowed herself a wry smile at the two of them. "But then, Admiral, I would have all that training to do to make those better advisers proficient in dealing with the Crazy Ice Queen; the Queen that almost froze her own kingdom into oblivion. Assuming I could find men such as you, as loyal as you, who would serve such a Queen."

"We have now learned a hard lesson. I hope, I pray that we will not pay for that lesson in blood and the lives of my sister, myself, or any of my subjects. But we have learned, and we will do better. All of us," she finished.

They could say nothing to that except bow to her and accept what she was telling them.

"Admiral, have you sent out the dispatches?" Elsa asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty. The Marine troop will meet us at the forest camp, Eric has sent his dispatch to the castle. Our messengers will get to where they need to be before the Weselton man gets back to his ships. Everyone will know what they need to do before you … surrender." She could tell that word was ashes in his mouth, bitter and choking him.

"Good. Thank you. Now, if I could ask you for the courtesy of letting Kristoff and me have a little privacy? He and I have things to discuss before the morning," she responded.

The two men saluted her and left them. Kristoff looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Elsa? What's going to happen in the morning? What was he talking about, 'your surrender'?"

She moved closer to him and took his hand in both of hers. He always thrilled at her touch, her hands were soft and smooth and a little cool. "Kristoff, we are going to do what is necessary to rescue Anna. Part of that necessity is that I must put myself in the hands of the Weselton force to give her a chance to escape."

"Elsa, no! They'll kill you!"

"That's possible, but killing me before they take me back to Weselton will result in their own deaths and they know it. I doubt that the Duke is paying these men enough to commit suicide for no gain. I think I'll be safe until we get to Weselton. But in truth, if that force is actually able to sail with their holds full of loot and me and Anna as prisoners, we will have failed, and I at least will probably die." She shook her head. "No, the whole point of my surrendering is to allow Anna a chance to escape. With me as a captive, the Weselton Commander will be confident that he has won, perhaps overconfident and careless. That's our only hope. The hope that Anna will be able to take advantage of that carelessness and escape."

"But … but … how is she supposed to do that? She can't just walk out the castle gates!" Kristoff protested.

"No, but the gates aren't the only way to leave the castle and Anna knows that. She's clever; it won't take more than a hint to point her in the right direction. And if she succeeds, then we're free to smash these bastards into dust and kick their asses all the way back to Weselton." Kristoff had never heard Elsa use that kind of language. Or seen that kind of feral snarl on her face. He pitied the Duke's men. And the Duke.

"It sounds like a risky plan," he said.

"It **is** risky, but it's the only plan that gives us any chance at all of ending this without destroying Arendelle and getting a lot of my people killed. Most of the risk is on me, but I have the best chance of defending myself if something goes wrong. The chances that Anna can sneak out of the castle are pretty good. You know how she is, this will be another opportunity for her to exercise that mischievous streak of hers."

She continued, "And once she's out of there, we can take back the castle and the town."

Kristoff looked down at his Queen, the woman that he hoped would be his sister-in-law some day. He was afraid for her because he could read between the lines. She would do whatever it took to rescue Anna.

"Elsa, please … take care of yourself in this plan of yours, will you?" he pleaded. "Anna needs **her** sister just as much as you need yours."

She smiled up at him, "I will, my loyal Ice Master and Deliverer. I intend to be 'Auntie Elsa' to Anna's many children," and she winked at him. "When she finds the right man, of course!" she teased and chuckled at his blush.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Although it was probably clear from context, I realized that I had forgotten to explain exactly who 'Admiral Naismith' was and why we care. Comes from writing too many stories and thinking you guys have (a) read all of them [and if you have NOT read all of them, why not?] or (b) read my profile! LOL!

From the original "Protector of the Dominion":

_High Admiral of the Navy Mikael Naismith was the highest ranking officer of the Arendelle military, de facto and de jure in overall command of Elsa's armed forces. His family had immigrated to Arendelle from Avalon when his great-grandfather had decided to remove himself from the religious turmoil in the aftermath of the Great Revolution. His troops called him "Old Hard as Nails", although not where he might hear it._

He appeared in my very first fanfic, "Beautiful, Powerful, Dangerous, Cold" but he didn't have a name or a backstory until later, when I realized I was actually building an AU with my stories. I went back and retconned in the name and backstory to BPDC.

Admiral Naismith, Kai and Gerda were the three people who knew all about Elsa's powers after her parents died. As Elsa once explained to Anna, it would have been irresponsible for no one to know should something happen to their parents. So Gerda had previously dealt with emotional episodes Elsa experienced. The Admiral built the dungeon and shackles at Elsa's request (Chapter 4 & 5 of "Walk Through The Park") and Kai, well, Kai just knows everything.


	4. Snowlems and Crown Secrets, Oh My!

_In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable._

– _Dwight D. Eisenhower_

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The Commander of the Weselton force strode briskly up the gangplank of his ship. He was met on the deck by his second-in-command who had been left in charge while the Commander had gone off to negotiate with the Queen.

"Well? How'd it go?" asked the man.

"I need a drink. Let's go have one and I'll tell you the good news. First, get about half the men turned out with full weapons kit and formed up on the quay. In two hours, we take over the castle."

Startled, his lieutenant said, "A hundred men can't take over that castle!"

The Commander laughed. "They can when they have a writ signed by the Witch Queen herself ordering her men to surrender it to us! Go do it, then join me in my cabin."

"Uh, we can't meet there."

"What? Why not?"

"That's where I put the Princess. She was driving me nuts with her babbling. It's the only place on this ship where she'd be comfortable, and you said we needed to coddle her until we knew if we'd have to kill her or not."

The Commander groaned. "Okay. I'll have a couple of the men take her for a walk on the quarterdeck while you and I talk. Get the men formed up and join me as quick as you can." He Looked around the deck and gestured for two men leaning against the rail to join him.

When he got to his cabin, Anna was leaning out the stern window, watching the activity in the harbor and wishing she could swim. Not that she would get very far if she attempted to escape that way.

"Well, Your Highness, it seems your sister can be sensible when she needs to be," he said as he slammed the door open. Anna jumped at the sudden noise and whirled to face him.

"What do you mean?"

"You're so important to her that not only did she agree to our terms, she gave me control of the castle. And she will be surrendering herself to me tomorrow morning," his contempt was clear in his voice.

"No, she wouldn't do that, not even for me!" protested Anna.

"You're too modest, my dear. It seems she has more regard for her sister than you thought; I assure you every word I just told you is the absolute truth. Rejoice! You get to sleep in your own bed tonight. For now, these two men will guard you up on the quarterdeck, I need this cabin before we go take over the castle." He bowed toward her with a mocking smile, and Anna grabbed her cloak and marched out of the cabin, glowering at him as she left.

The Commander walked over to his liquor cabinet, took out a bottle and two glasses, poured two fingers of whiskey into one of them and drained it in one gulp.

His lieutenant came back just then and chuckled, "That kind of day, huh?"

The Commander refilled his glass and poured one for the other man. Holding his own glass high, he said, "Here's a toast to the little weasel. I never thought we'd pull this off, but it looks like we did. Skal!" and he emptied his glass again.

Sipping at his own on the theory that ONE of them needed to remain sober until they got back to Weselton, the lieutenant said, "How'd you pull this one out of your … hat?"

The Commander sat in his desk chair, crossed his ankles and leaned back. "She's as squeamish as the old man said she was. Her Admiral had the right of it; she should have hung the Duke and his two goons when they tried to kill her. Women! Soft-hearted and soft-headed. This kingdom needs a strong **man** to rule it."

"Maybe he'll give it to you, along with the Princess after he burns the Queen. We both know he intends to make this part of the new GRAND Duchy of Weselton. He'll need someone to run it for him."

"Yeah, I'm guessing the Princess won't be that interested in a wedding after we whack her sister."

"Who cares what she thinks? Won't be the first 'arranged' marriage for a princess in this part of the world. Bed her, get her pregnant, keep her pregnant; she'll be too busy chasing after the little brats to worry about her long-dead sister." A cynical shrug accompanied this comment as the lieutenant finished his drink and put the glass on the sideboard. "But I think what we need to do **first** is get to that castle and take it over."

The commander slammed back the last of his drink, got up and walked out with his second-in-command. "You're right about that. Let's go drink the Snow Queen's booze while we put our muddy boots up on her furniture!"

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The ship dropped anchor as close to shore as it could and Elsa and the rest were rowed to land where a small group of Marines waited with extra horses. The party was made up of Elsa, Kristoff, the Admiral, Gunnarsson and the rest of her guard detail. They mounted up and rode to where the Marine encampment and Colonel Nordholm waited for them.

Elsa was as uncomfortable on a horse as it was possible to be without falling off. Riding wasn't something she had been able to practice much for thirteen years. Her skills when she was an eight-year old were still rudimentary and then there were no more lessons. She hung on as best she could and tried very hard not to spook the horse with any little bursts of ice on the reins or the stirrups.

The Marine camp was in a clearing surrounded by dense forest. Only game trails led here, so it was unlikely that any of the Weselton men would find it without expert guidance. Considering they were now in the position of the python trying to digest an elephant, Elsa doubted they had time for explorations of the beautiful Arendelle countryside in any case.

Gunnarsson helped her dismount. Kristoff had been almost as uncomfortable as she was, he was used to riding Sven bareback and that not often. He did manage to get back onto solid ground without help. Marines took the reins of their horses and led them away.

Nordlholm was waiting for them. He saluted, then said, "Your Majesty, Admiral. Please, join me in the command tent. I have set a picket line of guards camouflaged in the trees. The men have set up camp for the night and supper will be served soon. I suspect we have a long night ahead of us."

The little party joined him at a camp table set up in the tent, then gratefully accepted servings of stew and mugs of coffee from the camp cooks. The Colonel was right about the long night.

Once the remnants of the meal were cleared and everyone's coffee had been refreshed, the Admiral took his place at the head of the table and recapped the plan for the little group. Nordholm's jaw hung open when he heard the part about the Queen surrendering herself in the morning.

He turned to Elsa and said, "Your Majesty, forgive me, but that plan is insane. You must not put yourself at the mercy of those … animals."

Startled at his vehemence, the Admiral asked him sharply, "Lars, do you know something we don't?"

"No, Admiral, if you're asking me if they've engaged in any atrocities. They've stayed aboard their ships, guns at the ready to repel any foolish attempts to take them over. Which we couldn't do in any case without endangering the Princess."

"But? I think I hear a 'but' in there somewhere." prodded the Admiral.

"But, I recognized their Commander and his second. Those two are known to be notorious mercenaries across the northern realms and even into southern Europe. Unless they've changed their spots, that crew they've brought here is a motley collection of the scum and scrapings from every run-down dockside bar in this part of the world. Not a choir boy in the lot. I suspect their 'tribute collection' will result in a lot of beatings and other brutalities." He had to look away from Elsa's intent stare. "Particularly against the women. Ahem." His embarrassment was clear.

A few seconds went by as they absorbed this information. The Admiral spoke first, "All the more reason to make sure that our own people are the ones to actually collect the requested tribute and bring it to the docks. Lars, I want Marines in farmer's clothing in every group. No weapons except work knives, but trained men to keep an eye on those bastards and intervene if they see any violence from those scum."

Nordholm nodded. "But … the Queen ..."

Elsa felt horrified at the Colonel's explanation. Her face was impassive, of course, even as her emotions threatened to overwhelm her. She looked down the table at Colonel Nordholm and said, "Nothing like that will happen to me, Colonel. I will accept some indignities and even physical abuse but there are limits beyond which I will not allow them to go. Once I make that clear, they won't push those limits. I will fight back if they do, and that will end the stalemate, leaving them to face your vengeance. They have too much at stake to risk it for something easily available in any brothel."

Kristoff felt sick to his stomach, he had never considered this particular threat.

The thick silence dragged out for a few more minutes before Elsa spoke again. "Admiral, something you said gives me a thought about how we can add to our strength in the town and the castle for our rescue attempt. Colonel Nordholm, we had not discussed the entire plan when you began to tell us about the Weselton Commander. There is more that you need to hear, then let's discuss more options."

The Admiral started again, "Lars, here's the part we hadn't gotten to. Before I explain this, I need to ask you for an oath of silence, unbreakable under any circumstance and to be taken to your grave. This is a Crown Secret, something that has only been known to members of the Royal Family before now."

Nordholm stood and turned to Elsa, "Your Majesty, I swear to you by all that I hold Holy, and upon my honor, that I shall never speak of this secret to anyone. I will take this secret to my grave. So help me God."

Elsa nodded her acceptance of his oath and gestured at him to resume his seat. "Thank you, Colonel. I know that I can trust you." She turned to Naismith, "Admiral, you may continue."

"Lars, this plan is predicated on the Princess Anna escaping from the castle once those bastards move in. That's the reason Her Majesty offered them the castle. On board their ships, the Princess has no opportunity to escape. That dynamic changes completely once she's back in the castle and presumably able to move around somewhat freely, and with loyal servants to help her."

"What makes you think he'll take her back to the castle?" asked Nordholm.

Naismith chuckled, "Lars, you've spent enough time aboard ship. Do you really think he's going to spend one more night in a hammock, eating weevil-infested hardtack and drinking the swill out of the water casks, when he can track mud into Her Majesty's parlor and help himself to her liquor supply?" Elsa had to smile at the picture the Admiral painted.

"When you put it that way, of course not," Nordholm responded with a wry grin. "But he could leave the Princess on the ship."

"No, Colonel, he would not," interjected Elsa. "His only safety lies in keeping her close at hand, under his control. He would never leave her on the ship while he was in the castle. Additionally, he will think the castle gives him a better defensive position. He will be wrong."

"How so, Your Majesty?" Nordholm asked.

"For one thing, Colonel, there will be 13 members of the Queen's Own Guard running around the castle and the stables, pretending to be ordinary servants and stable hands," Gunnarsson chimed in. "I sent a message to the castle before we landed, instructing the men we left behind to put their uniforms on some of the more likely looking real servants, and teach them enough to march out in a group when the Weselton men show up to take over the castle tonight. I'm sure Sergeant Jorgensen can manage that."

"Thirteen against two hundred. And what about weapons?" Nordholm was skeptical.

"I doubt all two hundred will be in the castle. At least half of them will need to stay with the ships and deal with the people bringing the tribute for loading. And the castle armory will have muskets in it, which I am sure the Weselton men will confiscate. Let them. Our breechloaders and ammunition for them will be tucked away in one of the many nooks and crannies in that drafty pile of masonry. No insult intended, Your Majesty!" Eric looked at Elsa with a little smile.

"None taken, Captain. No one knows better than I how many drafts can blow through those halls."

Eric continued, "And the thirteen won't be alone. We'll be infiltrating some Marines as well, in disguise as tradesmen bringing in supplies for the Weselton troops. Kai will explain to their Commander that the castle larders can't feed that many men without replenishment, a statement that has the virtue of actually being true. I doubt they'll be counting bodies as the wagons come in. So, seven men bring in food, but only six leave. They'll be tucked away in more of those crannies. We should be able to smuggle in at least ten more men, I think."

"But, what about the Princess? We still can't do anything to put her at risk."

Elsa looked at him grimly, "And now we come to the one absolutely critical piece of this puzzle, Colonel. The part that is the Crown Secret. This plan assumes that my sister can escape from the castle before the day the tribute fleet is scheduled to sail back to Weselton. She will escape through a set of secret passages that go under the castle wall and up into the curtain wall leading to the hills. I will show you where the exit is, and you will place a troop of your Marines there to meet her. They will be nearby, at a landmark that Anna is familiar with, so they won't know how she got there."

The Colonel digested this statement in silence. No one in the tent said anything; the small sounds of a field camp could be heard from outside the tent with an occasional hoot of an owl or a distant wolf howling at the moon mixed in.

"Your Majesty, let's assume that the Princess Anna manages to do what you described..." Elsa could tell by the skeptical look on his face that he found that assumption far-fetched. "But you will still be a prisoner and at the mercy of those … those … bastards. How will you know that she has escaped and you are free to unleash hell on them? How will **we** know that you know? It seems to me there's a rather tricky timing issue in this plan."

Lars looked around and could tell from the stony expressions on the faces of Admiral Naismith and Captain Gunnarsson that he wasn't the only skeptic at the table.

Elsa sighed. "Colonel, I know how hard it is for you to believe that my sister can do this. Anna's normal carefree demeanor is an excellent disguise of her real abilities. I assure you that she is clever enough, and certainly brave enough, to pull this off." Kristoff nodded in agreement. Anna's quick thinking had saved his life the first day they had met. And no one knew better than he that 'fearless' understated Anna's willingness to charge headlong into danger when she felt the need.

The Queen continued, "As to how I will know it is safe, I trust in my sister to escape. I can only hope that there will be sufficient commotion once they discover she is missing to give me enough warning to defend myself and to break out of wherever they confine me. Once I have freed myself I will get outside and send you a signal. That will tell you to attack with everything you have as quickly as you can before I am overwhelmed."

"What kind of signal, Your Majesty?" Lars asked.

She looked at him wryly, "Why, what else, Colonel? A giant snowflake in the sky over the castle should be clear enough for you, no?"

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The discussion of how to place Marines in disguise at the docks and around the castle went on for some time. If and when the Queen and Anna were safely away from the Weselton men, the invaders would find themselves in deep, deep, deep, deep … reindeer poop. Naismith believed that in a battle there was no such thing as overkill. There was only 'Open fire!' and 'Reload!'.

"Finally, Captain Gunnarsson, I want you, your men, and Kristoff waiting for Anna at the location I showed you on the map. I believe Kristoff and Anna have picnicked there before, so he can guide you there even in the dark." Elsa finished.

Kristoff added, "It's a place I've been to many times, Captain, not just to picnic with Anna. I know that part of the forest like my own home."

"Your Majesty," Eric protested, "Our place is with you."

Elsa shook her head sadly. "Unfortunately, Captain, where I go tomorrow I must go alone. Your place is waiting for Anna. If anything happens to me, she will … be your Queen."

This last statement caused the Admiral to clear his throat and ask, "Your Majesty, if anything **does** happen to you, how will we know that?"

Before Elsa could explain, they heard a commotion outside the tent, some startled shouts of "Hey!", and "What the hell?!" and the sounds of men running. Gunnarsson immediately jumped to his feet and positioned himself between Elsa and the tent flap, his sword at the ready. The flap opened and Olaf skipped in, unruffled by the chaos he had left in his wake. Eric managed to avoid impaling him on his sword.

"Hi, everyone! I'm Olaf!" he announced, throwing his arms wide and looking around the tent. "Elsa! I'm here, I knew you wanted me, and I came!"

Eric sheathed his sword, cursing under his breath. The little snowman had become a familiar sight around the castle and in the town in the three months since Elsa brought back summer. He seemed to have a gift for passing right through any guards without being seen. It happened the first time the day of the Great Thaw when somehow Olaf found Anna in the castle library without anyone seeing him. It was a puzzlement how a living snowman with a flurry cloud over his head could seem invisible, but there it was.

Elsa held out her hands to invite Olaf into a hug, then said, "Olaf, I'm glad you're here little guy. The Colonel there," she pointed to Nordholm, "will need your help."

"Okay. What does he want me to help him with?" Olaf asked cheerfully.

"You have to stay with him until we all get back together. He's going to take you back to Arendelle with him." Elsa saw no need to go into any more detail than that. She had tried to explain this to Olaf before, but she wasn't sure he really grasped the concept of death. There was only one thing Olaf needed to do, and she was about to explain it to Eric, the Admiral, and the Colonel. "Do you think you could go back outside and make some new friends with the Marines? I think the rest of my guards are out there, too, and you know them already, and I'll bet they'd like to see you." Eric couldn't suppress his eyeroll at this last. Elsa's eyes twinkled as she caught him at it and winked at him. Olaf was just one of the trials Elsa imposed on the good Captain.

"Okay. Bye." Olaf skipped back outside the tent. His happy personality cheered Elsa a little.

She turned back to the men around the table. Eric had seated himself again.

Nordholm was bewildered. "Your Majesty, what did he mean when he said, 'I knew you wanted me'? And how did he find us?"

Elsa tried to reassure him, "I created Olaf on the day of my Coronation when I was on North Mountain. He was an expression of my bond with Anna, a living memory of how close we were as children. I can't explain how he came to life but he did, and he appears to have a link to both of us. His sense of 'where' is stronger with Anna, but if I concentrate hard enough, he seems to know what I want and where I am."

She went on, "You asked how you would know if anything happened to me, Admiral? Olaf will tell you." Kristoff nodded. He had been with Elsa and Anna when they went seeking clues about where Elsa's magic had come from and knew what she would say next.

"How?" Naismith asked.

"By melting," Elsa's voice was melancholy. "In my research into my powers, I found very little about where they came from or why I have them. But one thing was clear: when I die, anything that I had created with my magic would also pass away. Olaf, Marshmallow, the Ice Palace...all gone." She looked at them, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "When Olaf melts, you will know that I am dead and that you must attack at once and try to save my sister."


	5. Just the Second Born Sister?

_The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short._

– _Abraham Maslow_

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Kai, Gerda and 'Sergeant Jorgensen' stood on the portico of the castle, waiting for the Weselton troops marching toward them across the courtyard. They could see Princess Anna at the head of the line, flanked by two soldiers. She was just behind the Weselton Commander and his presumed second-in-command.

When a Weselton soldier had appeared at the castle gate with a message, it had taken them a few minutes to accept that the decree wasn't a clever forgery. At first they were skeptical; then Kai had compared the handwriting and signature on the parchment with many others and concluded that it was truly Elsa's hand that had written this inconceivable document.

Once that had been absorbed, their disbelief had curdled into a sickening realization that Elsa must be truly desperate to agree to this … this … abomination of a demand. Kai wanted to crumple the paper and fling it away but restrained himself and put his stoic butler persona in place. He could not, would not disgrace his Queen with unseemly behavior in front of Arendelle's enemies.

Sergeant Feles Jorgensen had received a message from Captain Gunnarsson a few minutes later. This one was delivered by a small sloop that had dropped a Marine off at the shore of the fjord. The two of them had gone to find Kai and make hasty plans to carry out the orders Elsa had sent them through Gunnarsson. They didn't have much time.

Everything had gotten done. The Queen's Own had hidden their rifles and ammunition in a deep cellar, guided by a footman dispatched by Kai. They had found 14 male servants whose physical appearance would pass as Guardsmen and put them in the appropriate uniforms. A very quick practice session of standing at attention and marching was completed a few minutes before the Weselton troops arrived, and the 'Queen's Own' stood at attention in front of the portico. One of the footmen who had served as a Marine when he was a young man wore the Sergeant's uniform; he would march out with the rest of the fake guardsmen, leaving Feles behind disguised as a groom. The Marine messenger would stay behind in disguise as well.

"_Great. 14 of us against about … I'd say 100."_ Jorgensen mused as he leaned lazily against the wall of the stable watching the Weselton troops arrange themselves into a sloppy line four deep across the front of the castle. They had muskets with the bayonets fixed and the front rank knelt and held their muskets not quite aimed at the little group on the portico. The threat was clear, though. The rear rank did an about-face and positioned themselves in the same kneeling posture, guarding against any threat from the castle walls.

"_These clowns are clearly mercenary scum; doubt they'd figure out the disguises if we put the maidservants in them."_ Jorgensen snorted in contempt and did his best to look lazy and uninterested. _"Bullets don't care who pulls the trigger, though. We'll have our hands full when it comes time to teach these bastards not to frack with our Queen and her sister."_

The Weselton Commander was making his demands to Kai and 'Sergeant Jorgensen'. "You, Guardsman! I want you and your troops out of this castle immediately."

The fake Jorgensen glared convincingly at the Weselton man, nodded to Kai and Gerda and stepped off the portico to stand in front of his 'guardsmen'. Once a Marine, always a Marine, and his Marine experience was more than enough for him to march the men out of the courtyard gates with credible precision. The other Castle guards, the ones who were not members of the Queen's own, had already left.

Satisfied with the departure of the 'Queen's Own', the Commander turned to Kai and said, "We'll be needing two rooms, one for me and one for my second in command. The troops will bivouac in the courtyard here. We'll be putting guards on the walls and in the watchtowers, so make sure no one pulls any funny stuff. We'll kill anyone who tries."

Kai looked at him with his usual dignified mien and replied, "We will need to get provisions delivered for your men, unless you brought your own food and drink. Your troops outnumber the usual castle staff by an order of three to one."

The Commander knew his men would expect better rations than those available on shipboard. He was a firm believer in the maxim, _"If the food is good enough the troops will stop complaining about the incoming fire__."_

He wasn't expecting any incoming fire, but keeping the men well fed would keep them from terrorizing the castle staff and the town. Garrison discipline was not the strong suit of his rag-tag bunch of mercenaries. They were more of the pillaging and burning variety of thug. Sometimes he had to remind them that it was, "Pillage, THEN burn!" they were so stupid.

"Alright, I'll have my men guarding the gates and checking the supply wagons through. Send word that I want a delivery as soon as possible, tonight if you can manage it. Include deliveries to my ships; we'll be here three more days, and I want the men left on the ships to eat as well as we do here. Plus stock them for our return voyage to Weselton. Then more deliveries with fresh food for the next three days. Think you can manage that, Butler?""

Kai simply looked at him with his most imperious expression and sniffed, "Of course I can." The Commander noticed the lack of any honorific, but let it pass. He had enough on his hands without starting a fight with the castle staff.

"Your Princess here is undoubtedly eager to get her pampered self to her own room. She'll be guarded around the clock by one of my men, but other than that, she can resume her normal activities, whatever the hell a Princess does during the day besides swoon and pine for her one true love."

Anna ignored this, vowing to make him eat those words. After she escaped and brought back a regiment of Marines, her sister and Kristoff, of course. She put a vapid smile on her face and said, "Gerda takes care of me, don't you Gerda? Can we go to my room? I find myself in need of a long bubble bath."

The Commander waved one of his men to go with the two women and they went into the castle. He turned back to Kai. "Okay, Butler. Show me Her Majesty's liquor cabinet. It's been a long day."

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Anna babbled aimlessly with Gerda all the way to her bedroom. The Weselton soldier checked to make sure there was only one door to the room, then let the women close the door behind them while he stood guard in the hallway.

With the door closed, Anna threw off her cloak, sat on her bed and said, "Gerda! Have you heard anything from Elsa? I've been so worried about her! That Weaseltown jerk said she was going to surrender to him tomorrow. That can't be true, can it? They'll kill her! She wouldn't put herself in danger like that, would she?" Anna looked at Gerda with anguish, hoping she'd reassure her that Elsa would be safe.

Gerda's face told Anna all she needed to know. "Your Highness, I'm afraid he was telling you the truth. The message sent to us by the Queen told us what she had planned. But it also said that she hoped that you would find some way to escape once you were back in the castle."

Anna was too worried by the first part of this to pay much attention to the last sentence. It finally penetrated her thoughts of Elsa's danger and she said, "Huh?"

"Your sister said she hoped you could find some way to escape. There were no details. I assume because she was afraid the note could fall into the wrong hands. We'll help in any way we can, of course."

"Escape? How does she expect me to escape? I mean, I've been wracking my brains trying to think of something, but those weasels will have every gate and tower guarded, looking for just that very thing. Not to mention the goon that will be following me around every minute!" Anna looked at Gerda with dismay.

"Your Highness, I don't know. But she obviously felt that you would."

Anna mulled this over for a moment, then hopped off the bed. "I need to think about it some more. I'll think better after a bubble bath. The bathing facilities on a ship aren't much to speak of and I itch in places I couldn't scratch. Let's do that, then have dinner." Anna was undressing while she was saying this, throwing her clothes on the bed and pulling on a dressing gown from her wardrobe.

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Dinner was uncomfortable.

The Weselton Commander and his second joined Anna in the dining room. They hadn't bothered cleaning their boots and Anna could tell the wine with dinner was only the most recent of the pleasures of the castle spirits cellar that they had enjoyed.

Conversation was sparse; even to lull the Commander into a sense that she was another empty-headed, spoiled Princess, Anna wasn't feeling cheerful enough to be chatty and exuberant. She finished her meal as quickly as she could and ignored them when she left the dining room. Her 'guard' followed her.

Anna wandered rather aimlessly through the castle just to annoy her keeper. The soldier trailing her seemed content to stay five paces or so behind her and stay unobtrusive. Anna hoped that all the soldiers assigned to her would show the same discretion. They made her skin crawl.

As they walked through the portrait room, Anna scanned all of her favorite paintings. There was one missing, though. For ten years she had often come here and commiserated with Joan of Arc when she felt particularly lonely or frustrated. Their 'conversations' always made Anna feel better and she always ended them by reminding Joan to 'hang in there'.

Then one day not quite three years ago, Joan disappeared. Anna had skipped into the room as she usually did and stopped abruptly when she saw another painting hanging where Joan used to be. It was common for the staff to rearrange the furniture in the castle, but this was the first time she had noticed anything changing in the portrait room. Anna knew who to ask, though, and she went off to find Kai.

"Kai, what happened to the painting of Joan of Arc?" she asked when she had tracked him down.

"Your Highness, your sister asked me to remove it and sell it," he answered.

"What? Why?" Anna was astonished. She saw Elsa so rarely she couldn't imagine her sister even coming into the portrait room. As far as Anna knew, Elsa had no interest in the portraits of the previous Kings and Queens of Arendelle, or even the more valuable and celebrated works of fine art that had been acquired over the years.

Kai tried not to fidget. Elsa had not told him why, but he had his own suspicions based on an episode Gerda had shared with him nine years ago. He would not speculate, so he simply said, "I don't know, Your Highness. She did not share her reasons with me." Which was the absolute truth.

"Hmph!" Anna pouted. She was a little angry with Elsa for taking away someone so important to her. She got more angry as she realized that Elsa had no way of even knowing how Anna talked with Joan because she had ignored Anna for ten years. _"Typical. She doesn't care about me and it never even entered her mind that I might have an opinion." _Anna thought. She didn't know what was worse; indifference or actual hostility. At least if Elsa was hostile, she acknowledged Anna's existence.

Anna had left Kai and gone to her room to mope. It wasn't the first time she had felt abandoned by her reclusive sister and it wouldn't be the last for another three years.

Today as Anna wandered through the room and went on to the library, she wondered one more time where Joan had gone and why Elsa had felt the need to get rid of her in the first place. She wished Joan was still there; maybe talking to her again could inspire Anna to figure out how to escape.

There was a thought trying to wiggle its way to her attention, but she couldn't quite get it to tell her what it wanted to say. It was playing peek-a-boo with her. She ignored it; experience had taught her that 'inner Anna' wouldn't stay coy for long. Eventually she stopped playing peek-a-boo and hit Anna over the head with a frying pan while screaming _"Pay attention!"_.

Anna plopped down on the couch in front of the library fireplace and sprawled out comfortably. Her watchdog had carefully checked the room for exits, then left her alone while he stood guard in the hallway.

She turned to lay on her side facing the fireplace. It was always soothing to watch the dancing flames. Her eyelids drooped; she began to doze off. _"Hang in there, Joan!"_ she mumbled. Flames. Joan. ELSA! Anna sat bolt upright, wide-eyed with understanding. Her 'inner Anna' had put the puzzle pieces together. She remembered what the Commander had said about 'executing your sister as a witch'. Joan had been burned as a witch; that's what the Duke intended to do to Elsa!

Anna jumped off the couch and began to pace, her thoughts rattling in her brain like dice in a cup. She couldn't believe that Elsa knew what the Duke would do to her and still be willing to surrender herself. A clean death was one thing, burning was another. Anna had read about Joan's death and then read more about the fate of heretics than was probably wise for a girl just entering her teens. It was an uncomfortable fascination with the cruelty humans could visit upon each other. It had transfixed her and sickened her at the same time.

"_Damn it, Elsa. Courage is one thing; this is so totally insane I can't believe you'd do it." _

It was more important than ever that Anna figure out how to escape. The only reason the Weaseltown goons were even still breathing was because they had Anna as a hostage. She shuddered at the thought of failure; of she and Elsa being dragged off to Weaseltown, where Elsa would burn. NO! Anna would never let her sister suffer a fate like that. She'd die again if that's what it took.

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Anna was laying on the couch and dozing again. She had paced and paced until she finally calmed down enough to nap. She was watching the fire through heavy-lidded eyes when she heard a soft knock at the library door. She doubted the Weaseltown goon would be that polite, so she raised her voice and said, "Come in."

It was Gerda with a tray. "Your Highness, you didn't eat much at supper so I brought you a snack."

Anna sat up, stretched and yawned. "Thank you, Gerda. Just put it down on the table. I'll be ready for bed in about a half hour."

"I'll meet you in your room to help you get ready to sleep." Gerda placed the tray on the table and left.

Anna was nibbling at the cookies and sipping tea when she became aware of 'little Anna' trying to get her attention again. But she was too tired to listen. It would probably come to her in the morning. That thought distracted her; Elsa would be surrendering herself in the morning. Anna felt herself tearing up. _"Elsa! You're willing to sacrifice yourself for me? I need to figure this out before those thugs kill you."_

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Kai and the rest of the castle staff watched helplessly as the Weselton troops set up a camp in the courtyard and positioned guards at every castle gate and along the walls in the watchtowers.

He had dispatched men to the merchants that provided supplies for the castle, requesting a special delivery this very night. They had a long list of food and drink to be brought in for the troops that had taken over the castle. At Sergeant Jorgensen's suggestion, the list included a large ration of cheap liquor. Feles had an idea of how to reduce the alertness and effectiveness of the occupiers.

The wagons started arriving within a couple of hours. They had several men on each wagon, because there was so much to unload. A steady stream of wagons came and went, and even though the Weselton men searched for contraband weapons, they weren't paying any attention to the 'laborers' unloading the wagons and carrying the supplies into the storerooms. Five disguised Marines were able to infiltrate the castle and blend in with the rest of the servants. Jorgensen checked in with each one of them to see if there were any further messages from Nordholm or Gunnarsson. There was nothing new, just the admonition to keep an eye out for opportunities to distract the Weselton troops.

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It was near midnight before all the wagons had unloaded their supplies and left. The Weselton commander had inspected the guard posts and made sure his men knew their assignments. Then he left to take over one of the more luxurious guest suites Elsa had for visiting dignitaries.

Jorgensen and three of his fellow Queen's own were behind the stable, engaged in their own plan. Superficially, it was a card game. A drunken card game. In reality, it was a lure to get the Weselton troops to find a liquor stash carefully 'hidden' by Feles and the others.

"Hey, you're cheating! I saw you pull that card out of your sleeve!" slurred one of the gamblers. It escalated into a drunken brawl that attracted one of the patrolling guards and his partner. The Weselton Commander knew that his patrols needed to have two or more men or he'd lose them to knives in the dark corners of the castle grounds.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" roared the Weselton soldier. The two men used boots and rifle butts to break up the brawl.

Feles and his buddies stood shakily against the wall with their hands up, putting on a good act at being drunken, frightened stable hands intimidated by the two Weselton men. "Just havin' a little fun. Not a lot for a stable hand to do once we got the stalls mucked and the horses fed!"

There were tins cups scattered around the cards strewn on the ground and a knocked-over jug. The smell of spilled alcohol was strong. It was not missed by the guards.

"Yeah? How about a beating? Think that would be any fun?" threatened the soldier.

"No, please, sir. We's just the help around here. Not here for fighting; them boys left when you came in," whined Feles in a surly tone.

"You want to keep that pretty face from getting kicked in, you'll tell us where you got that booze you're swilling," threatened the bigger guard.

Feles mumbled something and the guard prodded him with his bayonet, "Speak up, boy. I can't hear you!"

"I said, one a' the grooms got hisself a nice little still and has a nice little business selling it to us. They don't share the good stuff from the castle with the likes of us."

"Yeah, well our boss don't share the good stuff with us, either. So why don't you show me where the still is, and we'll let you boys go back to your horse shit without any more bruises?" laughed the thug.

With a show of reluctance, Feles nodded and said, "Come on, then," and led the two guards into the stable.

Later, Jorgensen and his three buddies met with a few others of the disguised Queen's own in a dark nook of the garden behind the castle.

"Did it work?" asked one.

"Yeah, in spades. Those boys are going to be everyone's best friends when they start sharing those barrels of akvavit we showed 'em." Feles chuckled. "Pretty sure their bosses weren't planning on a spirits ration for 'em. So they'll keep it a secret from the brass, and with any luck most of them will be drinking themselves to sleep and standing guard hung over in the mornings."

"Still doesn't change the fact we're outnumbered," pointed out one of his fellows.

"No, but a drunk and hung over merc isn't near the match of one of us. Not by half. Every little bit helps."

On that note, the men broke up to go their separate ways and wait for the morning. They knew the Queen would be taken prisoner then. It would be hard to watch and hold back from a rescue attempt, but discipline would hold. They would wait for their chance to make the Weselton men pay.

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Elsa signed the decree with a flourish, then slid it across the table for Naismith and Nordholm to put their signatures as witnesses below hers. When they finished, she dripped some candle wax next to her name and stamped it with her signet ring.

"There. It doesn't make any material difference, but it will satisfy any nitpicking parliamentarians who might want to make a fuss," she explained. "Anna is the heir; this just spells it out in a fashion no one can gainsay."

Nordholm cleared his throat and said, "Your Majesty, I'm sure you'll be fine ..." before she cut him off with a sharp gesture.

"No, Colonel, you're not sure. None of us can be sure. My parents were sure they'd be back in two weeks. This document is one more thing to insure the succession, to forestall any legalistic arguments that could arise."

She was staring at the document, breathing heavily. Kristoff stood in the shadows; affairs of state were not his strong suit and he was uncomfortable witnessing what could be Elsa's last official act as Queen.

The Admiral did not want to ask the next question, but his duty required him to. She was already upset; this would add to her distress. "Your Majesty, what if … something happens to both of you?"

Elsa squeezed her eyes tightly shut and sighed. "In that event, the succession passes to our second cousin. Her parents are still alive and ruling their kingdom; she is happily married and said to be with child. I can hope that Arendelle would be in good hands," she whispered.

She gathered up the document and placed it in a leather case. "Admiral, you will pass these documents to Anna should it become necessary. The others are in a sealed envelope for her eyes alone, they include a personal message from me. I know you will carry out this trust." and she handed him the dispatch case. He bowed and left the tent with Nordholm.

"Captain, if I may have a few moments with Master Bjorgman?" she gestured at the tent flap. Eric saluted and went to stand guard outside the tent.

Kristoff hesitated before he sat down at the small camp table with Elsa. "Elsa, I … " His throat was tight with fear for her; in the morning she would allow herself to be taken prisoner as part of a lunatic plan to rescue Anna and the kingdom from the treachery of Weselton. That it was HER plan didn't make it any less lunatic.

She looked at him with sympathy and reached out to cover his hand with her own. "I know, Kristoff. Anna will escape, I know she will. And when she does, those thugs will face the wrath of the Snow Queen of Arendelle. I just want to ask you for one thing: take care of my sister. If something happens to me, she'll … well, you know how hard it will be for her. I need to you be there for her, and tell her that I said that no sacrifice is too much for me if she's safe. And that I loved her with all my heart."

"You'll tell her that yourself when this is finished!" Kristoff insisted.

"I hope so. This is a 'just in case', trust me. Your place will be at the end of that tunnel, waiting for her. Then make sure she stays safe while the Marines take back my kingdom for me!" She tried to put on a confident smile; it looked shaky to Kristoff. He nodded.

"Now, for a few hours sleep. It's a least a two-hour ride and we'll be leaving at sunrise. Thank you, Kristoff. For … for everything." She hugged him before he left the tent.

There was something she hadn't told him. In the packet of documents she had entrusted to the Admiral was a patent of nobility knighting one Kristoff Bjorgman and granting him a barony. Anna would be Queen, and if she wanted to marry Kristoff, commoner or no, Elsa knew she'd do it and tell anyone who objected to go jump in the fjord. This would make it a little easier for Anna to shut off the whining from the more fussy of the nobility. Who could argue with a noble title bestowed by the Snow Queen herself just before she sacrificed herself for Arendelle? He would be Kristoff Bjorgman, Baron of Living Rock.

Elsa knew that Grandpabbie would appreciate the homage.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Go check my tumblr page for screen caps demonstrating the missing Joan of Arc painting in the movie. The link is in my profile.

Also, the maxims _"If the food is good enough the troops will stop complaining about the incoming fire__." _-and-_ "Pillage, THEN Burn"_, along with the Admiral's maxim that _"There is no overkill in battle. There is only 'open fire' and 'reload' " _are borrowed from **"The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries"** and can be found in more detail at **ovalkwiki dot com **If you aren't reading the web comic "Schlock Mercenary", you should be.

**Folks, fair warning, if you haven't buckled your seat-belts, please do so now**. Chapter 6 will be intense. In Chapter 7, I'll tear your hearts out and stomp them suckers flat. Enjoy the ride.


	6. Walking through Gethsemane

_Meekness: Uncommon patience in planning a revenge that is worth while._

– _Ambrose Bierce_

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Elsa, Gunnarsson, the Admiral and a troop of Marines rode into the town and followed the road to the marketplace and then to the causeway leading to the castle. As they approached they saw a group of Weselton men waiting for their arrival.

The Admiral halted his troops a few yards away from the enemy. He leaned over to Elsa and spoke softly, "Are you sure about this, Your Majesty?" She nodded and waited for Gunnarsson to dismount and hand his reins to the Admiral.

Elsa dismounted with Eric's help and handed the reins of her horse to him. "I'll be fine. Keep observing the castle and watch for the signal," she whispered as she tried to reassure him. Her practice at concealing her own emotions kept him from seeing the gut-wrenching fear in her heart. She was afraid for herself, but far more strongly for Anna.

She turned and walked up to the enemy officer. "I'm ready. Let's go."

He waved two of his men to take her, and they twisted her arms behind her and tied her wrists. This treatment of their Queen caused a stir of anger in her troops and a few kneed their horses forward before a bellowed, "STAND FAST, DAMN IT!" by the Admiral held them back. He glared at the Weselton men. "Is that necessary?"

The Weselton officer sneered, "If you think we'll trust the Snow Queen, you underestimate us. Now, go! We have a deal, carry out your part of it if you ever want to see the Princess alive again."

Eric had remounted his horse; with a reluctant tug on their reins the troop turned and rode away from the castle.

When they were out of sight the officer turned to Elsa, who was being held by the two soldiers who had bound her wrists behind her back. He stepped closer and backhanded a hard slap across her face. The blow cut her lip and made her stumble to one knee. A trickle of blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. A small patch of ice formed on the pavement where she knelt. She glared up at the officer. "What was that for?"

"A lesson. The first of many. You are helpless, and your kingdom belongs to us. Don't forget it." He gestured at the men, and they roughly yanked her to her feet. "Let's go see your sister."

The little group walked across the causeway through the courtyard and into the castle. The men strode briskly, pulling Elsa along and letting her stumble to the ground when she couldn't keep up. This was intentional, a ploy to degrade and humiliate her, as they would roughly grab her hair to pull her back to her feet and then laugh at her pain. The courtyard was full of the rest of the Weselton troops and servants and others of Elsa's castle staff. Her people had sullen, hostile looks on their faces and there was a low growl of anger when they saw their Queen being mistreated, but the invaders had muskets and bayonets and looked more than ready to use them.

"_Conceal, don't feel." _There was no sign of Elsa's inner turmoil on her face or in her bearing. She was the Queen, and she would show them the dignity of a Queen. The men didn't notice the small footprints of ice she was leaving on the pavement.

They entered the Throne Room, full of Weselton soldiers and more of Elsa's servants and subjects. On the dais, the Weselton Commander sat sprawled arrogantly on Elsa's throne. Anna was on her knees next to him, appearing to be unhurt. She wasn't bound, but two men flanked her with unsheathed swords, clearly meant to threaten her if she attempted any escape.

The little group with Elsa walked up to the dais. One of the soldiers holding Elsa kicked the back of her legs, causing them to buckle. She lost her balance and fell forward onto both knees. His sword nicked her cheek, a silent threat warning her to submit.

Her bun had loosened into a disheveled braid over her shoulder and her bangs dangled over her forehead. There was a small trickle of blood from her temple where one of her hairpins had cut her when they had pulled her up by her hair. Blood from her cut lip still stained her chin. On her knees, bound, hurt, she was defiant, even though her eyes had fear in them, fear for her sister, for Anna, eyes only for her, not the enemies who had taken them prisoner or for the sword at her throat.

"Are you okay?" she asked Anna. This cost her another blow that sent her sprawling to her side.

"Shut up, witch!" snarled the thug who had slapped her.

"Elsa!" Anna tried to run to her sister, but was held back by one of the soldiers guarding her. She attempted to pull free of his grasp and failed. "Elsa!" she cried again as tears began to run down her cheeks.

"Let her go," ordered the Commander. "Let the poor distraught Princess comfort the Witch Queen."

Anna ran to Elsa and helped her sit up. She wrapped her arms around her and buried her face in the crook of Elsa's neck.

This was exactly what Elsa had hoped for. Pretending to weep herself, she nuzzled Anna's neck, putting her lips to the younger girl's ear. "Don't react to what I'm saying. For our lives, keep crying," she whispered.

Louder, she simpered, "Oh, Anna, are you okay? Did they hurt you?" and kept whispering to Anna. She knew they didn't have much time to talk. "You must escape within the next three days. Get out of the castle through the secret passage and up into the hills. There will be Marines waiting for you. Understand?"

Anna kept sobbing, "Elsa!" but Elsa could feel her slight nod against her shoulder.

The Weselton Commander waved at one of the men, who grabbed Anna and pushed her back onto the dais. One of the others pulled Elsa onto her knees facing the Throne.

The Weselton Commander stood and addressed the room. There were some of the servants of the castle, plus what members of the Arendelle nobility that the Weselton force had been able to round up in a quick sweep. Two members of the Royal Council and the Bishop were in the small crowd as well.

"Let me tell you what will happen now, you rabble. My force controls your harbor and your town. I hold your Queen and her sister prisoner. Their lives are immediately forfeit if there is the smallest action in resistance to my men as they gather the tribute we are here to collect. " He glared at the crowd.

"Here is the agreement your Queen has made with us. We have her word that she will not use her powers to escape or resist us. Her sister is hostage to that oath. Neither of them will be harmed as long as that parole is maintained. Your Royal Marines and Navy have withdrawn under the same agreement. They will make no attempt to rescue your Queen or the Princess."

The Bishop stepped forward. "Why are you doing this?"

"The Duke of Weselton sent us to take vengeance on Arendelle and the Snow Queen for the insult given to him at this," his voice full of scorn, he gestured at Elsa, "**monster's** Coronation."

"We will be collecting a tribute from this kingdom to repay that insult. You will be given precise instructions of what is to be brought to the docks and loaded on our ships. On the morning of the third day from now we will sail. Your Queen and your Princess will accompany us to insure our safe passage back to Weselton."

The Commander waved at Elsa, "Take her away. I'm sure this castle has a dungeon we can … borrow."

The soldiers pulled Elsa roughly to her feet to take her to the dungeons, but she shook them off and stood proudly as she spoke to the Weselton Commander, defiant.

"Commander, we have an agreement, but I say to you now, I demand proof that my sister is alive and well twice a day, or I will consider your oath forsworn and no longer binding on me!"

"You are in no position to demand anything, Your Majesty!" he sneered at her. "One gesture from me and that sword at your throat would send your head rolling across the floor. We could kill you now, and your forces could do nothing!"

"You are wrong, Commander. My forces will know immediately that I am dead, will know that you are forsworn and will fall on your troops in a rage beyond your ken. I may die, but so will you. There will be no escape for any of you!" She lifted her chin and spoke her promise to him. A growling rumble of hostility flowed through the crowd of Elsa's subjects in the room. It reminded the Commander that he only had 200 troops to control an entire town; if he provoked them enough, they would tear him and his men to pieces, hostages or no hostages. The Queen and Princess were his only leverage.

He considered what she had said. How would they know she was dead? He had no idea, but the woman clearly believed it. Who knew what her magic could do? He decided to humor her. She still could do nothing confined in a dungeon under guard. "Very well. I will send your sister to see you in the morning and in the evening. Now, go!"

His men dragged Elsa away. She cast one last look at Anna as they left the room. _"Be safe, Anna. We'll get through this."_ She saw the anguish in her sister's eyes as she made a motion as though to reach out to Elsa. The door slamming behind them cut off Elsa's view of Anna as the Weselton men pulled her down the hallway.

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The soldiers pushed Elsa along and followed one of the castle servants down to the dungeon level. Her servant had been reluctant to cooperate, but a sword threatening his life convinced him, so he was showing them along the clammy corridor with a lamp in his hand to light the way.

They arrived at a cell door. The soldiers cut Elsa's bonds and shoved her into the dungeon where she fell heavily, catching herself on her outstretched hands. The circulation returning to her hands burned like fire, or ice. She stumbled over to sit on the pallet opposite the door and rubbed her wrists to get the feeling back, then surveyed her surroundings. Her whole body was sore, the cut on her cheek and the scrapes on her knees stung, her head ached from where she had been pulled about by her hair, but she knew this was just the beginning. Once her nerves calmed, she was sure to feel the full brunt of her injuries. She really wasn't looking forward to that, but first she had to get her bearings. She looked around to assess her surroundings.

Unlike the one Hans had used to confine her, this dungeon had no window. The only light came from the lanterns the servant had lit in the corridor outside the cell. One of the guards looked at her through the small barred slot high in the door and snarled, "No funny stuff! The first sign of trouble from you and your sister dies! Understand?"

She nodded grimly at him, then dismissed him from her thoughts. Now came the waiting. She trusted Anna to figure out what to do from the hint she had given her. She slumped against the dungeon wall, glad that the cold didn't bother her. This time she didn't even have a blanket. She chuckled without humor as she thought about the fact that for the second time in three months she was a prisoner in her own dungeon. What sort of Queen kept landing in her own dungeons? She was sure it was some sort of record for the monarchy of Arendelle.

She glanced at a bucket on the floor next to the pallet and shuddered in distaste. It could have been worse; there could have been no bucket. She wondered idly if they would bother to feed her, but dismissed that as of no concern. She wouldn't starve to death in three days. And if she was still here in three days she would be on her way to Weselton with Anna, with no way to avoid the death waiting at the end of that voyage without condemning her sister as well. She thrust that thought away and settled herself on the pallet. She would try to sleep as much as she could to conserve her strength. If all went as planned, she would need every bit of it to use her magic to defeat the Weselton men.

Her last thought before she dozed off was of Anna, and a prayer that her sister would stay safe.

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She woke up screaming.

She sat bolt upright looking around frantically, her hands grasping the edge of the pallet, freezing it.

A lantern appeared at the barred window of the cell and a rough voice yelled, "Hey! Shut up in there! Or I'll come in and shut your mouth for you!"

She cringed against the wall, breathing heavily and struggling to get herself under control.

"_That same nightmare. I should have expected it,"_ Elsa thought as she took a deep breath and tried to slow her pounding heartbeat. It took a few minutes before she could finally breathe normally again and suppress the terror that had woken her. It was the dream of her earlier imprisonment in a dungeon, waiting for Hans to come and kill her.

She noticed the ice and gestured to dissolve it. Standing up, she began to pace, wringing her hands together as she did. With no window Elsa had no sense of time. She could have been asleep for minutes or hours. She was too tense and fearful to have any appetite, her stomach heaved at the thought of food.

Now her injuries demanded more of her attention. Her neck ached from being jerked hard when they pulled her up from the ground; her jaw throbbed where she had been struck. She brushed at it gingerly and looked to see that her fingers were sticky with blood. Her screaming must have opened the cut lip again. She wiped her hand on her skirt and resumed pacing, wincing as her skinned knees brushed against the fabric of her skirt. It was painful to walk and a headache pounded in her temples.

There was a commotion in the hallway and the sound of a key turning in the lock of her cell. Elsa moved as far from the door as she could and prepared to protect herself with her magic if she had to. One of the fears gnawing at her was the possibility that they would decide to kill her out of hand and damn the consequences. Any time someone came to her door it could be her executioner. Even without nightmares she would sleep poorly, waking at the slightest sound. Already she felt exhausted by the constant need to hold herself alert and ready to defend against any threat; she worried that she would be slowed by her injuries.

The door opened and Gerda stepped in carrying a tray with a bowl, a pitcher and some towels. Another maid carrying a tray followed with what appeared to be a bowl of stew, bread and a mug.

Gerda gestured with her head to indicate the maid should set her tray on the pallet and leave. They locked the door behind her, leaving Gerda alone with Elsa. "Your Majesty. I bring you a late lunch, and some remedies for your … injuries. If you would sit, I will tend to them and then you can eat something." Gerda tried not to show her dismay at how battered Elsa was.

Elsa had almost fainted from relief when she recognized Gerda and her assistant. "Ye...yes, thank you, Gerda," she stammered, then moved to sit on the edge of the pallet. The savory aroma of the stew aroused Elsa's hunger; something she hadn't thought possible. A very Anna-like tummy rumble gurgled in the stillness, causing Elsa to squeeze her eyes shut and think of her sister.

Gerda moistened a towel and began to gently clean the blood and dirt from Elsa's face and hands. She asked Elsa to create a small amount of snow in the bowl, then used it to soothe her bruises. When she had finished that, she pulled a hairbrush out of a pocket in her skirt and said, "May I re-do your braid, Your Majesty?"

Elsa nodded, and turned a little on the pallet so Gerda had better access to her hair. It was only the work of a few moments for Gerda to loosen the disheveled braid, brush out the snarls and tangles, then re-braid Elsa's hair neatly and lay it over her shoulder.

"Now for lunch, Your Majesty," and Gerda picked up the second tray and sat on the pallet beside Elsa, holding the tray so that her Queen could eat comfortably.

By the time Elsa had finished the thick, meaty stew, buttered bread and a mug of milk, she felt her strength returning. "Thank you, Gerda," Elsa whispered. "I feel much better." She glanced at the door; no one was peering through the window, but they could still be listening. Elsa pitched her voiced even lower, "Is Anna okay?"

Gerda cast a glance at the door as well, then nodded. "We'll take care of her, Your Majesty. And we'll take care of you as well. Stay strong." Her voice was so low that Elsa almost had to read her lips to understand her.

Standing up, Gerda placed all the plates and pitchers on one tray, then stacked the second tray underneath and picked up the entire collection. "I'm finished here!" she said loudly so the guards could hear her. Silently, she mouthed, "Stay strong," again to her Queen, then walked to the door reaching it just as it opened. The door slammed shut as she left and Elsa heard the key turn in the lock again.

She sat quietly for a few moments, enjoying the feeling of well-being that the food had given her. She yawned. Elsa decided that she should try to sleep again. Although it was possible that they had let Gerda tend to her as a ploy to lull her into a sense of security, it was more likely that they really did want to keep her alive. For now. She had to risk it. Without sleep she would be too weak at the end of the three days to accomplish anything. Elsa lay down again, arranged herself as comfortably as she could and fell asleep.

There were no nightmares this time.

Elsa heard the sounds of someone unlocking her door again and came instantly awake. She sat up on the pallet, and then stood, holding herself ready to defend herself.

When the door opened, it was one of the Weselton men holding Anna by the arm. She was gagged. It seemed that the Commander was not so trusting as to allow them speak to each other. Elsa had to admit grudging respect for the man's cleverness.

"Your Majesty, may I present your sister, alive and well as we agreed," taunted the man in a sick caricature of courtesy.

Anna had a scowl on her face that quickly changed to an expression of affection mingled with concern as she looked at Elsa and absorbed her battered condition. "Elsa, are you okay?" was muffled by the gag but Elsa heard the love in her sister's voice without any trouble at all.

"I'm fine, Anna. What about you?" asked Elsa, but before Anna could make any reply she was yanked roughly out of the cell and pushed into the arms of another guard in the hallway.

"We agreed to let you see her, not have a tea party. She's alive and well. You've seen her. We're done here," barked the man. Then he left, slamming the door behind him. The key turned in the lock and Elsa was alone again.

"_Okay, it's the evening of the first day. Three more nights. Three nights before ..."_ Elsa pushed the pessimism down. She knew Anna would find a way. She had to find a way.

Elsa sat down on the pallet again. She leaned back against the wall, closed her eyes and tried to keep herself from icing over the cell. It would be a very long three days.

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After the assembly in the throne room, Anna had eaten lunch in the kitchen with little appetite. Elsa's instructions about escaping were distracting her from almost everything else. She needed some quiet time tonight and maybe have a little chat with Gerda.

Pushing escape plans to the side for the moment, she had spent the afternoon in the stable with Sven. He was glad to see her. Kristoff had gone off with the Admiral to meet Elsa and hadn't come back. Olaf was nowhere to be found. When Anna came into the stable with a handful of carrots for him, he pranced and snorted and brayed his relief that he hadn't been abandoned and that at least one of his friends was back.

Anna scratched Sven's chin and fed him the carrots. She filled him in on everything that had happened, ignoring the disgusted looks her watchdog threw her way. With any luck, the guard would think she was feeble-minded and pass that information on to the Commander. Every little thing she did in public was calculated to show how vapid and clueless she was. Anna didn't care if they thought she was an idiot; idiots didn't need close guarding and wouldn't be expected to have clever escape plans.

All she needed now was that clever escape plan.

"Wish you could come with me, Sven. But when I sneak out, I'll bring Kristoff and the Marines back with me, and we'll rescue Elsa. Then we'll all be together again, and we can go on a nice picnic," she whispered to him.

Sven snorted and barked. She knew he was agreeing with her and looking forward to it.

She buried her face in his fur as she hugged him. She didn't want the guard to see her sudden tears as her stomach lurched with fear; fear for Elsa, fear for herself. _"Please let us be together for a picnic again." _

Anna babbled her way through dinner, causing the Weselton Commander to consider instructing the Princess to eat all of her meals in the kitchen. He knew that pampered royalty like her were brainless and prone to talking about nothing at all to fill their idle hours, but he had never been forced to spend time with one before and it was driving him to distraction.

She was going on about some stupid reindeer and how she had missed him and she couldn't wait to see him again after dinner and feed him more of his favorite snack when the Commander couldn't take it anymore. "Shut up, Princess, you're giving me a headache!"

She snapped her mouth shut with and audible click of her teeth and looked hurt. She sniffled and looked like she would cry.

"Finish up that cake. You have a date with your sister."

"What?" she asked.

"You heard her little ultimatum. She wants to know you're still happily skipping around the castle every day or she'll bring down Ragnarök on our heads. I'll humor her as long as it suits me." He snapped his fingers and the soldier that had been standing against the wall came over and pulled Anna out of her chair and began walking her to the door.

After Anna had been presented to Elsa, the guard took her back to her room, pushed her in and closed the door behind her. She pulled the gag off and threw it to the ground, then went and sat on the window bay. _"Elsa looked terrible. They're hurting her. I have to figure out how to get out of here."_

The hint that Elsa had whispered in her ear had churned through her brain all afternoon. She had kicked herself for not thinking of it without the hint; that's probably what 'little Anna' was trying to tell her last night, only she was too tired to listen and had been distracted by the witch burning terror.

Shortly after they had been reunited three months ago, Elsa had begun to tutor Anna in the lessons of statecraft. She knew that while Anna had been educated well, the focus had not been on governance and protocol. Their tutors had assumed that Elsa would rule, would marry, have children that would inherit the throne and Anna would go off and marry some second son of a Prince and live happily if boringly ever after.

Elsa had learned that nothing in life was certain, and if anything happened to her Anna would take the throne as Queen. She was determined that her sister would have all the same tools her father had passed on to her. Anna deserved nothing less. For that matter, Elsa learned things from her sister as well. Thirteen years of seclusion didn't give a person much practice in social skills. Anna could teach Elsa how to actually enjoy the company of other people and have fun at parties.

One of the things Elsa had shown her sister was a secret that had been shared only within the royal family, a Crown Secret. There were hidden passages in the castle that could be used to move between certain rooms, and there was one that led outside the castle by way of the curtain wall that ran up into the hills. This last passage was intended to be an escape for the monarchs if the castle were to come under siege.

Sieges had gone out of style once cannons had replaced catapults, so there had been no use for that particular exit from the castle for hundreds of years. Until now.

Anna had been thrilled with the existence of the hidden passages; they appealed to her sense of mysterious adventure. It was easy for her to throw herself into the task of memorizing the paths and learning to follow them in the dark without even a candle to light the way. Now she needed to use that knowledge for real, with life or death consequences if she made a mistake.

She jumped down from where she was sitting on the window sill and went to the door. Out in the hallway, the guard grabbed her arm and said, "Where do you think you're going?"

Pulling her arm out of his grasp, she sniffed in her haughtiest manner and said, "Where I go every night; to the library for my snack and reading and maybe a nap." She began walking down the hall toward the library, leaving him to hurry and catch up.

Grumbling, he muttered as they walked, "Damn princesses. Tea and cookies and all that crap all the time. 'S a wonder you don't have to roll down the hallway like a fat pumpkin."

She ignored him.


	7. Nightmares in the Darkness of the Soul

"_Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul."  
>– Dave Pelzer<em>

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**Author's Note:**

WARNING, DANGER WILL ROBINSON! Okay, this chapter contains **no** explicit physical torture or sexual assault. However, a nightmare creates EXTREME emotional distress for Elsa as a childhood trauma that she thought she had suppressed comes back with a vengeance. If this will cause you discomfort, feel free to skip to chapter 8. The purpose of this chapter is not gratuitous torment; it does give some insight into one of the wounds Elsa has been carrying around since she was eight years old. She goes to a very, very dark place here.

The last sentence is the key: _Elsa promised herself one thing – she would not allow the Duke's men to take her back to Weselton alive._

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It was the second evening of Elsa's imprisonment. She knew that because they had brought Anna to see her twice more. It was the same routine as the first time: The guards would unlock the door and slam it open. Anna would be held in the doorway so Elsa could see her. She remained gagged to prevent the sisters from exchanging any information or making plans in some secret sister code. Elsa would ask if she was okay and get a nod in return. Anna would be pulled away and the door slammed shut and locked.

"_How could something that's only happened three times seem so … regular, as though it had been going on since the beginning of the world?"_ Elsa mused. Her spirits were briefly lifted by the sight of her sister; she drank it in as though it might be the last time she would be with Anna on this earth. In truth, each time **could** be her last; the possibility that her captors would decide to kill her and take their chances at escaping before her Navy and Marines realized she was dead increased with each passing hour. They could look at the loot piling up in their ships' holds and decide they already had enough to make the trip worthwhile.

Elsa settled back onto her pallet. Gerda had brought her food again, probably at approximately midday. Elsa still had no sense of time; the only markers she had were Anna and Gerda. She tried to sleep as much as she could; to pass the hours and to maintain her strength. Her anxiety and the need to remain alert for an attack kept her sleep from being very restful or refreshing. She could tell the lack of sleep was taking a toll on her.

Trying to find a more comfortable position, she tossed and turned briefly before falling into a doze, then deeper into sleep.

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Elsa felt pain in her shoulders from the tight bonds pulling her arms behind her. She was wearing a sleeveless sackcloth shift saturated with pitch; the stink added to her nausea. Combined with the lurching of the tumbrel taking her to the city square for execution, she would have vomited if there had been anything in her stomach. They had not fed her since the sham 'trial' ended with the solemn pronouncement of her sentence of death by burning. She could only gag futilely, the heaving of her empty stomach choking her with foul-tasting bile.

Elsa's hair was short; they had hacked off her braid when they had stripped her naked and dressed her in the shift. The Duke had overseen her humiliation with salacious glee. He explained that he didn't want her long hair burning and choking her with the smoke; that would kill her too quickly.

"We've taken great care to build the pyre for a long, slow burn, Your Majesty!" Her title was an obscenity in his mouth. "It will take at least an hour for you to die; the fire will devour you slowly, savoring every inch of your body as it does. I look forward to the perfume of your burning flesh and the music of your screams!" He laughed with cruel mirth and left her to the guards to bring along.

The tumbrel pulled up next to the stake, the bundles of firewood arranged neatly with a path open for them to chain her to it. The guards dragged her out of the cart; she stumbled and almost cried out from the pain of stubbing her bare foot on a sharp rock. She was so weak her knees buckled and she would have fallen if the two guards hadn't caught her. This caused more pain in her shoulders as they yanked her along.

The stake had been positioned on a raised platform of stone; this would give the crowd a good view of her coming torment. The guards carried her up the stairs and cut her bonds. Positioning her at the stake, they pulled her arms behind her around the stake and shackled her wrists. Then they wrapped chains around her torso and legs, insuring that she would be held upright until there was nothing left but ash and bone.

Elsa could hear the crowd screaming "Witch!", "Monster!" and "Sorceress!" The Duke had aroused their blood lust with wild tales of the evil she had done. She did cry out when she was struck on the mouth by a thrown rock, but two of the guards holding the crowd back jumped the thrower immediately and hustled him away. They weren't taking any chances that she would be knocked unconscious before suffering the agony of the fire. She tasted bloody froth on her lips, coppery and bitter, then spit out a piece of broken tooth.

She tried to blink away her tears. The dazzling glare of the bright sunshine almost blinded her after her confinement in the black gloom of the dungeon. She looked around and her gaze found what she was looking for: a head of bright red hair, on the dais with the Duke. Anna! Elsa could tell she was sobbing and calling her name, but she was restrained with shackles that held her to a chair at the Duke's right hand. He was smart enough to realize that nothing would hold Anna back from her sister if she were left unbound.

A guard stood next to Anna with an unsheathed sword. Elsa was still restrained from using her magic by the threat to Anna. Her hatred for the Duke forcing Anna to watch this barbarity was so consuming that she almost, almost let her magic strike him down. Maybe a clean, quick death for both of them was better than letting Anna be shattered by the atrocity she was about to witness.

The Duke rose and addressed the crowd but Elsa wasn't listening. She concentrated on Anna, mouthing "I love you," and hoping her sister could understand what she was trying to say. She would keep Anna in her sight until she finally died. The last thing she would see in this life would be her beloved sister.

The thundering roar of the crowd penetrated Elsa's concentration. She saw a guard approaching with a lit torch. _"It begins,"_ she thought. The swaying flame of the torch was almost hypnotic; it entranced Elsa until she forced herself to tear her gaze away from it and turn back to Anna.

Out of the corner of her eye Elsa saw the guard thrust the torch into the wood arranged around her. She could feel the first tendrils of heat on her legs and smell the tickle of the wood-smoke. Iron discipline kept her from looking down, from looking away from Anna. The flame spread slowly, creeping closer; it licked at her feet and she …

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... screamed as she rolled off the pallet and onto the floor of the dungeon. "No! Gods, no!"

She flailed around wildly, her arms extended and her hands raised to fling her magic at the threat. Heart pounding, she panted like she had run ten miles across the fjord again. She only realized where she was when the guard outside banged on the door and roared "Shut up in there! D'ya want a beating?"

"_Oh, gods, it was a dream, just a dream."_ She sprawled flat on her back, put her arm across her eyes and tried to gather up the bits and pieces of her shredded composure. It took long minutes for her breathing and heartbeat to slow to normal and bring a shaky calm to her. She dragged herself off the floor to sit on the pallet, her head in her hands and sobs wracking her body.

When she was eight and they had gone to the trolls to cure Anna, Grandpabbie had shown her a vision of a crowd attacking her for her magic. A poor explanation of the meaning of "fear will be your enemy," left the little girl shaken to her core.

Not long after that Elsa had read a history of St. Joan of Arc. She had seen the painting of Joan in the castle's art room; the heroic pose of the woman in the portrait had intrigued her and led her to do further research on the saint. She was fascinated and enthralled by the valiant exploits of St. Joan in her gallant effort to free her people from foreign invaders. Her horror when she read what happened to end Joan's heroism had choked and nauseated her; she instantly imagined herself in Joan's place; burning as a witch, a victim of one of the cruelest deaths possible. Her mother had found her crying hysterically, thick ice coating the desk, the book and spreading out around the chair she was sitting on. It had taken Queen Idun hours to soothe Elsa's heartbroken weeping and find out what had caused her daughter such anguish.

Elsa never went into the portrait room again.

When her parents died, it had taken Elsa several months to overcome her grief and function with some composure as Queen. When she finally settled into the role, however awkward and contrived it felt, she had instructed Kai to sell the painting of St. Joan. She didn't explain why, and he didn't feel comfortable asking. Several weeks later he had told her they had gotten a good price for it from some museum in Paris and she buried that nightmare with the rest of her past.

The Duke's threat to burn her as a witch had exhumed that trauma like some wraith from a cold damp grave.

Elsa's weeping slowed and finally stopped. She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and took several deep breaths in a shaky attempt to regain her poise. _"Well, no more sleep tonight, that's clear." _She looked down at the icy outline of her body where she had lain on the floor. A wave of her hand and it was gone.

She stood and began to pace, fighting to keep from recalling the dream. _ "Anna, think of Anna. Think of Olaf. Think of the time before the accident, when you loved your magic. Remember how you felt building the Ice Palace." _The happy memories were like a talisman she could use to drive off the demons haunting her.

Eventually she calmed herself enough to sit on the pallet again. She wouldn't lie down; sleep was something to be avoided for now, regardless of how much she needed it. Elsa promised herself one thing – she would not allow the Duke's men to take her back to Weselton alive.


	8. Danger has a bracing effect ― Sun Tzu

_Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.  
><em>– _George Bernard Shaw_

_Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.  
><em>– _Sun Tzu_

The Weselton Commander had a throbbing headache this morning; he was hung over. Thank Loki that they were leaving tomorrow; the temptation of free, excellent, unlimited liquor was obviously not something he could resist. He sat heavily in his chair and mumbled, "Coffee," at the footman serving them this morning.

His second in command looked at him with a raised eyebrow while sipping his own coffee. "I told you that you were overindulging in that crap."

"Shut up. Just shut up."

Nothing more was said until breakfast was almost over. "Where's our fluffy little Princess this morning?" the Commander inquired.

"She likes to sleep late. Stays up until practically dawn in the damn library, then stumbles to her room and sleeps like the dead until mid-morning or noon. The servants say she usually misses breakfast." He looked at his boss speculatively. "Good thing, or you'd probably kill her just to shut her up, with that headache."

"Time to take her to her sister," growled the Commander. "Don't want that bitch getting twitchy just 'cause the Princess oversleeps."

"Not a problem. The sister knows about it, according to that maidservant, uh, Gerda, I think? It's been like this her whole life, apparently. The witch would probably freak out if the pretty Princess showed up early, she'd think we were torturing her or something."

He looked over at his boss and continued, "Speaking of twitchy, I think the witch is nuts, completely c-a-r-a-z-y!" as he made a circular motion with his forefinger twirling next to his temple.

The Commander looked up from his eggs and bacon and asked, "What do you mean?"

"She wakes up screaming every time she falls asleep. The guards are spooked. Say it's like a banshee haunting the place," he explained.

"Huh. Wonder what that's all about. The little weasel didn't mention that as a problem."

"Probably 'cause he's never seen her sleep? Or wake up? In any case, maybe we shouldn't be greedy. Maybe we should slit her throat and sneak out of here on tonight's tide. Before she goes all ice-crazy on us."

The Commander wished his head would stop pounding. Even the coffee wasn't helping. He thought hard about the suggestion, considering whether it was worth the risk. Finally, he shook his head and said, "No, the little weasel would be pissed if we didn't bring her back. He's REALLY looking forward to watching her die. It's not the money. Okay, not **just** the money. He wants to HURT her."

He held out his cup for a footman to pour him more coffee and drank it all in one long swallow. "Besides, if she's as nuts as you say, she's probably not as big a threat as we thought. Delusions of grandeur and all that. No, we'll be out of here tomorrow on the noon tide, ships stuffed with loot and two very valuable hostages in chains. With the biggest payday either one of us has ever seen waiting for us. We can finally retire."

On that happy note, the two of them left the dining room to check on the progress of the loading of the tribute.

=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=

"_Today's the day." _Anna thought to herself.

She had spent the last two nights planning her escape with Gerda. Establishing a routine of sorts, falling asleep in the library and staying there until the predawn hours. Tonight, she would use that routine to lull them into a false sense of security and sneak out of the castle.

Gerda had been hiding sturdy, dark clothing for her in the cabinets of the library. She would change, put her own clothing on some pillows, make it look like she was sleeping on the couch under a blanket, then leave through the doorway hidden behind one of the library bookcases.

It was hard to maintain her chatty persona today; harder to eat without the food sitting like tasteless lumps in her stomach. Her life, ELSA's life, depended on her getting this right. _"Okay, Feisty Pants, you can do this! You're ready, you were born ready! Kristoff's out there waiting for you, a few more hours and these Weasels will wish they'd never ever heard of the Snow Queen of Arendelle __and her fierce sister__!" _She tried to pump up her own morale. She worried that Elsa had no one to pump up **her** morale.

She was out in the stable talking to Sven when the Weselton Commander came and found her. "Hey, Princess. Come on, one last visit with your sister. Tomorrow we sail, and the two of you will be our guests for a lovely voyage to Weselton."

There was no change in the routine when they took her down to the dungeon. Elsa's appearance had deteriorated over the last several days; she had developed prominent dark circles under her eyes and she looked … groggy. Anna knew she wasn't sleeping well. She had overheard the guards gossiping about the screaming and she could imagine what nightmares were causing that.

It was the hardest thing Anna had ever done to keep from trying to give Elsa some sign that she only had to worry for a few more hours. She couldn't take the risk of raising any suspicions, not now, not at the very end of the plan. She could look concerned and mumble, "Are you okay?" through the gag, but that was all. Nothing to encourage Elsa, nothing different than she had done the last two nights.

When they took her back to her room, she tore off the gag and paced, running over in her mind what she had to do one last time. She finally left her room and went to the library, ready to put the whole plan into motion. By morning, she and Elsa would either be free or dead.

=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=

It was the hour of the wolf in Arendelle, the time just before dawn, a time when people believed demons had heightened power and most nightmares came. The castle was silent, sleeping, only the flickering of the Northern Lights through the windows breaking the gloom, casting ever-changing shadows onto the floors of the deserted hallways. The Weselton thug standing guard outside the library caught himself dozing for the third time and decided the Princess could just go back to her own damn bed and let him hand her off to another guard.

He pushed open the door and stomped over to the couch. The fire had burned down to dim, flickering orange embers and the only light in the room came from the Aurora shining through the windows. The Princess was a huddled lump under her blankets, sound asleep again. He reached down to shake her awake, "Hey, wakey wakey, bitch. Time to go to your room. We got a big day tomor ..."

She didn't wake up. She wasn't even a she. He felt something soft and yielding instead of her boney shoulder. Pulling the blanket off, he was stunned to realize there was nothing under it but some pillows wrapped in her clothes and arranged to look like someone asleep. She was gone! Where in the hell could she have gone? There wasn't any other way to get out of this room! He looked around wildly, ran to the window to check if that was a way out. It was still locked from the inside, and he had looked through it yesterday; it was a thirty foot drop to the ground from here.

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap..." his mind gibbered as he realized what his boss would do to him when he found out he'd let the Princess escape. He tried to bring his panic under control, tried to figure out what he should do next. He suddenly had what seemed like a brilliant idea to his thuggish brain. Stuffing Anna's clothes under the cushions of the couch, he quickly folded the blanket and arranged the pillows properly on the couch and left the library. Then he ran down the hall to stand guard over Anna's bedroom. An empty bedroom, but no one knew that except him.

When his relief came to Anna's room fifteen minutes later, he was leaning against the door yawning and grumbled at the man, "What took you, Ivan? You're late."

"Sorry, sorry. Card game. I was winning and wanted one last pot. Here, take this for an apology," and he handed over a jug that gurgled suggestively. "Some of that akvavit the stable guys have been sharing."

Putting on a mollified air, he accepted the jug and took a swig. He wiped his mouth and told Ivan, "Our pretty princess is sound asleep. Try not to wake her with your snoring, you pig!" and he swaggered away.

Once around the corner from Anna's room, he broke into a run; he had a buddy working the main gate tonight. He'd sneak out, get back to the ships and bury himself so deep they'd never find him before all hell broke loose. He never had any use for Ivan anyway, so handing him the dirty end of the stick didn't bother him. He wondered how late they'd let the princess sleep come daylight. Late, he hoped. The later, the better.

=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=

Anna bit her lip as she stifled another sneeze. No one had dusted these passages for years. She tried not to think of the spiders and other crawlies she was probably squishing as she brushed the walls. The passageway was as dark as a cave; there were no windows, nothing that would provide even the dimmest light. Anna didn't dare light a torch or even a candle. She was navigating by touch alone.

She was dressed all in black: low cut black boots, black woolen pants and tunic, a knit cap that covered her hair. She had pinned her braids up so they were covered by the cap.

Unfortunately, she had no sense of time. Her heart was pounding so hard it could have been ten minutes or ten hours since she had slid through the opening behind the library bookcase and started her journey. She had only walked the entire way out through the curtain wall once before, when she was memorizing the passages. It had taken her about two hours. She allowed herself three hours this time, just to be safe. She had began her escape around midnight, planning to find herself in the forest around three in the morning, or a couple of hours before dawn.

Three in the morning was about the time they usually decided it was time for her to move from the library to her room, so with any luck she would be meeting up with Kristoff and the Marines about the time they realized she was missing and they would be scurrying through the castle desperately searching for her. Anna prayed that when they discovered that she was gone, Elsa would hear them panicking before they came to kill her. If Elsa realized that Anna was safe, she could use her magic to defend herself and get out, too.

Anna bumped her head on something. It was the gate to the forest at the end of the curtain wall. _"I made it!" _she exulted._ "Now to find the Marines!"_

She opened the gate as quietly as she could, then listened for any noises outside. Hearing none, she silently slipped out and closed it behind her. The exit was hidden behind some tall, thick bushes. She looked around to orient herself, then dropped to a crouch and began to move toward the clearing where she and Kristoff had picnicked and where she assumed they would be waiting for her.

Suddenly someone grabbed her from behind and clapped a hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. She began to struggle before she heard a whisper in her ear, "It's Kristoff, Feisty pants. Don't scream. You're safe." He waited for her to nod, then let her go.

Kristoff found himself with an armful of freckled redhead kissing him passionately and hugging him so hard he fell backwards onto his rump. "Kristoff! Am I glad to see you! I mean, if I could see you, which I can't because it's so dark out, but you know what I mean!"

Anna had the presence of mind to shout this in a whisper.

"Whoa, I'm pretty glad to see you, too. Are you okay, you hurt, anything wrong?"

"No, I'm great. But we need to get back there and rescue Elsa! They'll kill her the second they realize I'm gone. What time is it? I snuck out at midnight, they would take me back to my room around three, how late is it?"

Kristoff looked up at the stars. He could just make out a few of the more prominent ones through the treetops. "Hmm, not quite three yet. Couple hours til dawn. Looks like you made good time. Come on, let's get back to the Marines."

He stood up and helped her to her feet. They moved as silently as they could toward the meeting point where a troop of Marines and Captain Gunnarsson and his squad of Queen's Own were waiting tensely for Kristoff to return. It took them a few minutes in the dark gloom of the forest. Kristoff didn't risk making a light.

A few yards from the edge of the clearing, Kristoff tugged on Anna's arm to get her to stop, then motioned that she should crouch down. He made a birdcall like a seagull. There was an answering birdcall, and Kristoff stood up pulled Anna along. They stepped into the clearing and Kristoff said softly, "It's us, Kristoff and the Princess Anna. We're okay and haven't seen anyone else."

The Marines and Guardsmen came out from behind trees and bushes where they had concealed themselves. Eric and a Marine Major ran up to Anna and Kristoff. "Your Highness! Are you well?"

"Yes, Captain, I'm fine. No problems at all. But we need to get back to the castle and rescue Elsa before they kill her!" Anna insisted.

Eric shook his head, "I'm sorry, Your Highness. Our orders are to protect you at all costs. Queen Elsa assumed that when they discovered you were gone, she would hear them and be able to protect herself and break out of the dungeon. We're too far from the castle in any case; it is at least a four hour hike back to town from here. We didn't bring horses and there's no direct path."

Anna exploded, "We are not going to sit around in the woods while my sister is in danger!"

The Major interjected, "Your Highness, Admiral Naismith has two regiments of the Marines hidden close to the docks and the castle, ready to attack. As soon as they see the signal from the Queen, they will fall on those pigs and come to her aid."

"But even with that many troops, it will take time for them to break into the castle! Even a small group of Weasel soldiers can hold the main gate for hours; the causeway is the only way in without swimming the fjord!" Anna had learned about sieges when reading about St. Joan's campaigns. "Elsa could be killed while he's trying to storm the gates!"

Gunnarsson , "I understand your concern, Your Highness. But the Admiral's orders were clear; we are to begin moving back toward Arendelle with you, and remain at the Marine Barracks until the entire situation is … resolved. One way or another," he had to finish his explanation honestly, as reluctant as he was to admit there was even the smallest possibility that Elsa wouldn't survive.

Anna turned away, not wanting him to see her tears. Kristoff followed her and tried to reassure her, "Anna, she'll be okay. She can handle those goons, once she knows you're out of their hands and safe."

Looking up at him, Anna pouted, "But what if she doesn't know? What if they're smart enough to just open the cell door and shoot her before she realizes? Kristoff, I can't lose her! Not again!"

Her cry of anguish almost broke Kristoff's heart. He reached out, and she leaned into his arms, burying her tear-stained face into his chest. He patted her back gently and said, "Anna, she's thinking of you every minute. She told me to tell you she loves you with all her heart and that no sacrifice was too much for her if it meant you were safe."

Anna pulled back, wiped her face and looked up at him, "Kristoff! She wouldn't have told you that unless she was afraid she wouldn't … wouldn't make it! We have to do something!"

"You heard what the Captain said, Admiral Naismith ordered them to ..." Kristoff broke off at the sudden change of expression on Anna's face. "What are you thinking?"

Without replying, Anna stalked over to where Eric and the Marine Major were organizing their troops for the march back to Arendelle. She stopped next to them and demanded, "Captain, Major, who exactly gave you those orders?"

They looked at her in puzzlement and Eric replied, "Admiral Naismith, Your Highness." He didn't understand why Anna smiled at this.

"Then I am countermanding those orders. WE are going back into the castle and rescuing my sister!" Anna proclaimed, folding her arms and glaring at the two men.

"Your Highness, you can't..." protested the Major. Anna cut him off.

"I am CROWN Princess Anna of Arendelle, Heir Presumptive and second in command to my sister, Queen Elsa of Arendelle. Therefore, unless you received your orders directly from Her, you will obey **me**!" Anna had drawn herself up to her full height and stood with her best impression of regal grace as she commanded the two men.

The Major and Eric looked at each other in consternation. Anna was legally correct in all particulars. She had paid close attention to Elsa's tutoring. Kristoff grinned at the tableau; he agreed with Anna and would go along with whatever she wanted to do for Elsa.

Eric played his last card. "We can't get there in time!"

Anna trumped it. "We can if we go back the way I came. It took me only two and a half hours, and I was going slowly and carefully because I didn't want to get lost and had to move by touch. Going back it will take far less time and we will be inside the castle with fifty well armed men from a completely unexpected direction."

"Your Highness, the Major and his men are not cleared for this information. The Queen swore me, the Admiral, and Colonel Nordholm to secrecy before she would tell us." Gunnarsson tried one last desperate play.

"Then I shall simply swear the Major and all his men to the same oath of secrecy!" declared Anna triumphantly. "Give it up, Captain. I'm going to go rescue my sister. With only Kristoff to help me, if I have to. Now, what will it be? Are you coming along or not?"

Less than fifteen minutes later, the entire troop of Marines had sworn their oath to the Princess, she had led them to the hidden entrance, and they were on their way to rescue Queen Elsa.

=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=

Captain Gunnarsson and the Major both had pocket chronometers since precise timing was critical when coordinating troop movements and maneuvers. By Eric's timepiece, it was just after dawn, and Anna told him they were almost to the hidden door through the castle wall.

"Now, we have to be really, really quiet until we can get everyone positioned," Anna was whispering to Eric. "I think we need to have one of your men slip into the library, then sneak out and reconnoiter the situation, see if they have started breaking camp or have noticed I'm gone yet."

Kristoff whispered, "Wouldn't they have noticed by now?"

Anna shrugged. "Maybe not. They left me alone in the library yesterday until dawn. If today is the day they're leaving, I don't know what they'll do."

Eric had a grim thought. "Your Highness, I hesitate to suggest this, but … perhaps they decided to … eliminate the Queen as she slept and was at her most vulnerable. Then they would leave you alone as long as possible to keep you from realizing it."

There was a long moment of silence. Anna finally said, "But you said that Elsa had left Olaf with the Admiral. If they killed her, the Admiral would attack immediately, wouldn't he?"

Gunnarsson nodded.

"Well, I still think you should send one of the Guardsmen in to check out the ..." Anna continued. She stopped as Eric gestured at her with a hushing motion and a finger to his lips. She stopped talking and listened.

There was a faint sound of gunfire and a few screams.

"It appears the attack has begun," Eric said. "Let's go. Speed is more important than stealth now. For Queen Elsa and Arendelle, men!"

He grabbed Anna as she started through the door. "No, Your Highness. The Marines go first, and we protect you! Until we're sure that your sister is safe, you are the only person left in the succession, and we must protect you as we would the Queen herself!"

Anna gulped and nodded. Kristoff took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. They pressed back against the wall to allow the Marines to hurry past them into the castle.

Anna was worried; had the attack begun because Elsa had signaled the Admiral, or because Olaf had melted?

"_Please be okay, Elsa. We're coming for you, sis!"_ Anna prayed.

=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=

Ivan was still guarding the door to Anna's bedroom when two more guards showed up with Gerda, another maidservant, and two footmen. It was just dawn.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Time for the Princess to wake up. These here," and his relief guard pointed a thumb at Gerda and the other servants, "are along to pack up her stuff for the trip to Weselton."

Ivan shrugged and knocked loudly on the door. "Wake up Your Royal Highness! Time to pack for your trip!"

After a few seconds passed with no response, he opened the door to shout again, then stopped dead when he saw that the bed was empty. "Hey! She's not here!"

Gerda suppressed a smile. She had been worried that the plan hadn't worked, that Anna had been brought back to her room before being able to slip out through the hidden passage. Somehow, this guard had been deceived into thinking she was in her room when she really wasn't. _"Good girl, Anna. Now to make sure the Queen stays safe." _ Gerda nodded her head at the two 'footmen', both disguised Queen's Own. They nodded back.

The three Weselton guards ran into Anna's room for a frantic search. The 'footmen' turned and ran down the hall as soon as they were alone, heading for the dungeons and Queen Elsa. Gerda and the maidservant remained behind.

"Where is she?" Ivan ran out and asked Gerda, the other two right behind him.

"How would I know? I saw her last night when I brought her tea in the library. She was there when I left. Your guard was with her. I went to bed as usual and when I woke up before dawn, you people dragged me here to tend to her before you take her off to Weaseltown!" Gerda looked down her nose at the flustered guard. The three goons were so addled they didn't even notice the 'footmen' were gone.

"What are we going to do, Ivan?" whined one of the two relief guards.

"How in Loki's brass balls should I know? I ain't no officer!" Ivan sputtered. He looked around wildly. "We got to find the boss and tell him. Come on!" and the three ran down the hall leaving Gerda and the maidservant gawking after them in disbelief.

"We need to alert everyone else that Princess Anna is gone and Queen Elsa is in danger!" Gerda said. "You go down to where the rest of the Queen's Own are hiding, tell them to arm themselves and get down to the dungeon. I'll go find Kai and tell everyone else!"

"Yes, Mum." The two women hurried off to warn the rest of the servants that a battle was about to begin.


	9. The crash of guns, the rattle of muskets

_Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.  
>- Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington<em>

=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=

Elsa tossed and turned on her pallet, then finally gave up any hope of sleep and sat up. She was bone-weary after three days of little sleep; sleep that was restless and troubled at best. She wasn't sure how effective her magic would be when she needed it, as drained as she was. If she had enough to defend herself until she could get outside and signal the Admiral, it would be sufficient for her needs.

She had known when Anna had come to see her last night that it was the last time she would see her before her sister would attempt her escape before dawn this morning. If she succeeded, Elsa was free to unleash her magic on the Weselton men and escape herself. But Elsa had no idea if Anna had succeeded or not. There had been no furor that would indicate Anna had been missed, and as far as she knew the two guards were still outside her cell door as usual.

She cocked her head and listened intently. She assumed that when they found that Anna was gone, or worse, caught her in the attempt, they would come and try to kill her. Her every sense was heightened as she tried to interpret the tiniest sound in the corridors. If she knew for sure Anna was safe, she would strike out at her guards and free herself. But she dared not risk Anna. If that meant sacrificing herself, so be it. She would defend herself, but not attack, not until she knew Anna was safe.

She heard footsteps and muffled voices, then what sounded like a scuffle. She jumped to her feet and backed away from the door, prepared to face her captors. The key turned in the lock and the door opened; a man dressed as a footman looked in. He was wearing a green shako on his head and carried a rifle. "Your Majesty, are you all right?" he asked with concern. "I'm one of your Queen's Own. Admiral Naismith had us remain behind in disguise. The shakos are the only spare pieces of uniform we had left!"

Elsa slumped against the wall in relief. "Yes, Guardsman, I'm fine. Has my sister escaped?" Her voice was shaky with tension.

"Yes, Your Majesty. And now we need to get the hell out of here before the Weasel Commander realizes it and sends more men down here to kill you!"

He held out his hand to her and she took it gratefully. She was wobbly on her feet from fatigue, fear, and just plain worry about Anna. Elsa leaned on him as the two 'footmen' led her down the corridor toward the rest of the castle. His partner was a little ahead at an intersection with another hallway. He checked carefully around the corner, then waved them on and they ran toward a doorway.

"We're going to take you down to where we had our weapons hidden, Your Majesty. You'll be safe there. The goons can't search this entire castle with the few men they have, and once they realize you're gone, they'll try to get back to their ships before anyone can stop them," the Guardsman explained to Elsa.

She shook her head. "No, we need to get somewhere outside, so I can signal the Admiral that it is time to attack. Then you can take me to safety." She looked around to orient herself, then said, "This way. It leads to a side door that comes out by the church."

The three of them ran down the hall until they came to another door. It was locked and barricaded. "Damn it!" exclaimed the Guardsman. "They must have every door except the main one to the courtyard locked and blocked off."

Elsa's hands were shaking again, and she was leaving an icy trail of footprints. Her control of her magic was deteriorating. "We need to get outside! What time is it?"

Her Guardsman said, "A few minutes past dawn, Your Majesty. They were going to wake up your sister to pack for the trip to Weselton when they found her room empty. We came down here immediately to free you and take you to safety."

Elsa nodded. That meant it was light outside, they would be seen when they exited the castle. "I must signal the Admiral. We'll have to risk going outside by way of the main door," Elsa decided. "This way, we'll take the servants' hallways around to the front of the castle."

The little party set off again, checking every hallway for Weselton soldiers before entering it. They were almost at the main door when they heard shots and yelling coming from the courtyard. Her Guardsman grunted, "That tears it. Sergeant Jorgensen and the others must have decided to try for the main gate to open it for the Admiral. Otherwise, it could be hours before our men could force them open."

"Now we have two reasons to get outside," Elsa said. "They'll stand a better chance if I can help them with my magic! Let's go! Now!" And she began running for the door.

The three of them burst out of the door and into the courtyard. Elsa wasted no time sending a blast of snow into the air to form a giant snowflake in the sky above the castle. "There, now the Admiral will know it's time to attack!"

She looked across the courtyard; a small group of her men all wearing shakos, were in a tight group halfway to the main gate. They were fighting off a small group of Weselton men. She sent a blast of ice spikes to fend off some of the Weselton men, then more spikes at another group.

"Come on!" she screamed, and ran toward her men while shooting ice at any Weselton soldiers she could see.

There were only a few men fighting her guards because the men sleeping in the tents pitched in her courtyard were slow to react; Jorgensen's plan to reduce them to drunken, hung-over ineffectiveness was doing its part, but it wouldn't take much longer for Elsa's men to be overwhelmed.

Elsa and her two guardsmen joined the little group of her men and she said, "Sergeant Jorgensen! Let's get those gates open! The Marines should be here very quickly!" She looked around and formed an icy barrier between them and a group of Weselton men that seemed to be organizing themselves to charge at them.

The small group of Queen's Own with Elsa at their center moved quickly to the main gate. There were several Weselton guards there, and they fired at Elsa. Two of her guards were hit, splattering her with blood, but the rest shot down the Weselton men, who were frantically trying to reload their muzzle-loaders. Elsa's guards had breech-loaders, a great advantage under these circumstances. Her party reached the gates. Jorgensen swore, "They've chained them shut!"

Elsa shouted, "Clear yourselves away, I'll open them!"

Her guards formed a half-circle around her, facing the threats from the courtyard. Elsa blasted the gates open with her magic; they fell outward onto the causeway. She was using her magic at a prodigious rate; it had taken all she had to get the gates open, and she felt her magic weakening as she used it. Through the now open gates, she could see fighting at the other end of the causeway between her troops and a large group of Weselton men. Unfortunately, those Weselton soldiers were in a fighting retreat across the causeway, right toward her!

"We have to get back to the castle, Sergeant! The Marines are coming, but there are Weselton troops between us and them!" Elsa screamed. Feles nodded as he thumbed another round into the breech of his rifle.

The group reformed with Elsa at the center and began to fight their way back to the castle portico and the doors to safety. Jorgensen hoped they had enough ammunition. They kept firing at any threat, until they had expended the last of their bullets. They still had Elsa's magic for offense, but she was trying to conserve her strength. They were reduced to defending her with their bodies and their bayonets.

Behind them, the Weselton troops ran into the courtyard, pursued by the Arendelle Marines. Shots and screams rang out as the two groups engaged in hand to hand fighting. Most of the enemy troops in the courtyard rushed to help secure the gates. It was still only a small opening, and they could repulse the Arendelle forces for a long time.

Elsa was the eye of a whirlpool of conflict; her Queen's Own surrounded her, the bayonets on their rifles dripping gore. She concentrated on defending herself as best she could. Her guards were out of ammunition, and it was down to bayonets only. Fortunately it appeared that the Weselton troops were mostly fighting without ammunition as well and most of them were at the main gate. As more Arendelle troops fought their way into the castle, there wasn't time for a man to reload a musket before he was swamped by his enemies.

The clamor was incredible. Occasional shots, the ringing of steel on steel, screams and grunts blended into a constant cacophony that drowned out any possibility of orders being heard even if there were officers to give those orders. This wasn't a battle, it was a screaming chaos of individual hand to hand fights.

There were intermittent shots fired when a man or small group of men found a lull that let them reload their muskets. Elsa was the target of many of these shots. She was able to throw up icy barriers for some of them, and for others her guardsmen stood between her and death, using their own bodies to shield her. As one guard fell another took his place, but bloody attrition was cutting down the group surrounding her.

It was down to Elsa and her last two guardsmen as they finally reached the steps of the castle portico. "We have to get you inside to safety, Your Majesty!" one of the men screamed in her ear as he gutted a Weselton soldier who tried to slash at Elsa with a sword. She was too busy fending off another attacker to answer him.

Her magic was failing her as fatigue robbed her of her strength. She picked up a sword and was brandishing it; with her other hand she would throw icy spikes if an attacker got too near, if she could manage to generate icy spikes. They were in front of the doors of the castle. If they could get inside and bar the doors, they would be able to hold out until the rest of the Marines took control of the castle courtyard. Ten minutes; they only needed to hold for ten more minutes.

"Get inside, Your Majesty!" shouted one of her guards as they turned to protect her from a small group of enemy soldiers approaching from the church.

She was almost to the door when the Commander of the Weselton forces ran out and skidded to a stop as he saw Elsa. "I'll kill you if it's the last thing I do, bitch!" he screamed and ran toward her with his sword pointed at her heart.

She tried to use her magic, but it didn't work. All she had to defend herself was the sword in her hand. She moved to put the door at her back, hoping to slip past him into the castle.

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Anna's troop of Marines emerged from the curtain wall gate to find the madhouse of conflict in the courtyard. The Major looked around and realized he could end the fight by slamming into the unprotected backs of the Weasels fighting to hold the main gate. "Follow me, men!" And he charged forward.

Eric grabbed Anna's arm. "Not you, Your Highness!" He waved the guardsmen into a tight circle around her and Kristoff. She glared at him, then looked around at the fighting. She had almost missed the tableau playing out on the portico of the castle when she realized it was Elsa, fighting for her life.

"Elsa!" she screamed and bowled over two guardsmen as she rushed to her sister, outdistancing Eric, Kristoff, and the rest of the guards as they took off running after her.

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The Commander snarled and advanced on Elsa. She raised her sword to fend him off, but he feinted past her inexpert guard and lunged forward to drive the point of his sword into Elsa's upper arm, pinning her to the door as the sword sank at least three inches into the wood. She screamed and dropped the sword. Blood ran freely from her wound, painting the door with a crimson streak; there was none of the spurting that would have indicated that a vein or artery had been cut, but she would black out from loss of blood soon enough. It was all she could do to remain upright, bracing herself against the door and trying to blink the tears out of her eyes so she could see her murderer.

The commander had stepped back, releasing his grip on the sword that pinned Elsa. He stooped to pick up the one she had dropped and put the point to her throat. She looked at him with hatred in her eyes; the searing pain in her arm almost blinded her with tears. Her chest heaved as she tried to pull enough air into her lungs to fight back one more time.

"Well, Your Majesty, it seems we have failed in our mission. But I will die with the satisfaction of knowing that the Snow Queen of Arendelle is no more!" he taunted her.

"_At least Anna is safe. Be the good Queen I know you can be, Anna. I love you__,__"_ were Elsa's last thoughts for her sister.

Elsa gathered the last shreds of her power; she used the gut wrenching fear and pain to summon her magic for one last desperate throw of the dice. She wrapped her good hand around the blade of the sword at her throat, startling the Commander. Instead of running her through he gaped as the blade froze and then shattered into a thousand pieces. He dropped the hilt and stared at her, "You … you … can't do that."

She looked at him and smiled; the smile a small fish might see on the shark bearing down on it. She extended her fist, opening it to let the last shards of his sword flutter to the cobblestones.

"Why is it," Elsa asked conversationally, "that people like you always think you're more ruthless than people like me?" Her voice strengthened, "I am Elsa, Queen of Arendelle, protector of this dominion and its people! Look at me and despair, you misbegotten pig, as I kick you and your foul pack of murdering thugs into the fjord and back to Weselton!"

Then she reached up and grasped the sword pinning her to the door. She froze a layer of ice on the blade to give herself a safe grip, then yanked it out of the door to free herself. She threw the now-frozen sword down and it disintegrated into icy shards that skittered away on the cobblestones. She was down to the dregs of her strength now but she thought she had enough left to finish this.

Gibbering from terror, the Commander stepped back as Elsa advanced on him, her hand stretched toward him and glowing blue, swirling white ice particles showing that the magic was beginning to flow. He stumbled off the steps and landed flat on his back then scrabbled backwards as she continued to come toward him, his eyes focused on her hand and the magic glow and the bright white of the ice.

"Hey, weasel boy!"

He whipped his head around and saw a black boot coming at him just before it kicked him in the head and sent him sprawling and unconscious. "Don't mess with the two terrible sisters of Arendelle, you stupid piece of reindeer dung!"

Elsa was swaying on unsteady legs, not really understanding what she was seeing. "An … Anna?" she stuttered.

"Elsa!" Anna caught her as she slumped bonelessly to the cobblestones. She knelt and cradled her sister in her arms, then tenderly brushed Elsa's sweat and blood-soaked hair back from her face. Elsa's eyes were open but she couldn't seem to focus them on anything. She pawed clumsily for Anna's hand with her own, finally wrapping her fingers around it and squeezing weakly.

Kristoff ran up to them, looked around and bellowed "MEDIC! The Queen!"

A Marine medic ran over and knelt next to Elsa. A quick check, and he pulled out some bandages and began to wrap her arm to stop the bleeding. Anna comforted Elsa as he worked while Kristoff watched anxiously. They were surrounded by Eric and the Queen's Own that had finally caught up with Kristoff and Anna.

As the medic finished bandaging Elsa's arm, he looked up at Anna and said, "We need to get her into the infirmary, she's lost a lot of blood and she's very weak."

He stood, then waved over two more Marines. "We need to get the Queen inside. Get a stretcher!"

While they were waiting for the men to return with a stretcher, Admiral Naismith rode into the courtyard with a troop of mounted Marines. They dismounted and ran over to where Kristoff and Anna were.

"How badly is the Queen wounded?" asked Naismith.

Eric responded, "Not mortally, but she's lost a lot of blood." He looked around; the courtyard was carpeted with bodies, not all of them from Weselton. He saw some of the shakos of his own men lying scattered on the cobblestones. They had protected the Queen and done their duty. He hoped that not all of the men were dead, only wounded.

The medics returned with the stretcher just then, and they gently placed Elsa on it. She was unconscious now, limp and unresponsive. They picked up the stretcher to take it inside the castle. Anna began to follow it when the Admiral stopped her. "Your Highness, you're needed here!"

"Wait, what? I need to be with my sister!"

"We have a problem, we need you in the town square quickly. There's a mob trying to kill all the Weselton men, and the Marines are having a hard time holding them back."

"Let them die! After what they did?" Anna snarled and turned away. Kristoff grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Anna, is that what you think Elsa would want? You're her second in command, you need to do this. The mob will listen to you!"

Anna was torn; she wanted to be with Elsa. But she knew Kristoff was right; mob justice wasn't something that Arendelle would be proud of after the blood lust had cooled. She knew Elsa would want her to stop it if she could. "You stay with Elsa, Kristoff. I'll go with the Admiral. Captain, bring me a horse!"

Eric led a horse over and she mounted up. Kristoff looked up at her and said, "I'll stay with her until you get back." She nodded, then kicked her horse into a trot. Eric and her guards had mounted up and followed her.

When Anna and her bodyguard rode up to the docks, they found a scene of chaos. The Weselton men in the town had retreated, trying to get to their ships. Unfortunately, loyalty to their comrades wasn't a strong point for mercenary thugs; the men remaining on board the ships had cut loose from the quay and let the ships drift, hoping to make sail and get out of the harbor. That wasn't going to happen; Anna could see at least two frigates of the Royal Arendelle Navy had returned and were patrolling outside of the harbor. She assumed that the harbor chain had been raised as well once Elsa's signal had been seen. Those ships weren't going anywhere, but they were beyond the reach of the angry mob storming down from the town.

This left a group of about fifty mercenaries trapped on shore. A large mob of the citizens of Arendelle were surging toward them, brandishing farm implements and anything sharp they could find. They were angry, angry enough at the depredations and terror that had been brought to their kingdom by these thugs that they had forgotten that they were a civilized people. Their anger was inflamed further by the tales of what these animals had done to their beloved Queen and her sister.

There was a cordon of Marines trying to protect the mercenaries, who had thrown their weapons into the harbor and surrendered to the Marines. Unfortunately, the mob knew that their own troops wouldn't fire on them or use their bayonets, and it was only a matter of time before the crowd broke through the cordon. Colonel Nordholm was in command here and was desperately trying to decide how to deal with this mess when he saw Anna ride up with Eric and the others.

Anna reined her horse to a halt, stood tall in her stirrups and tried to be heard over the clamor of the crowd. They were so focused on storming the docks that they didn't notice her. Eric signaled to the Colonel, who ordered his troops to fire a volley into the air. The gunfire momentarily stunned the crowd into silence, and before they could start shouting again, Anna's clear voice rang out, "PEOPLE OF ARENDELLE! Listen to me!"

A few of the people at the edge of the crowd turned and saw her, and started exclaiming, "It's Princess Anna! She's safe!" More and more people turned at these cries and joined in. It didn't take long for the entire crowd to surround Anna and her small group of bodyguards. They all began clamoring, "Princess Anna! Where's Queen Elsa?"

Once the crowd was concentrating on Anna, Nordholm had his Marines gather all the mercenaries into a compact group and surround them. They ordered them to put their hands on their head and kneel until they could be taken off somewhere and confined. Nordholm could see that the two Navy frigates were sailing into the harbor, cannons run out ready to fire on the Weselton ships and with Marine boarding parties ready. The Weselton ships wasted no time running up white flags of surrender at this show of force. Mercenaries fought for money, not to the death.

Anna raised her hands, trying to get the crowd to quiet down. Eventually, they did. She said, "People of Arendelle! Queen Elsa is safe! She is in the castle being tended to. Please, go back to your homes! This attack is over! Let the Marines take care of these thugs!"

Someone yelled, "Let's just hang 'em all now!" and the crowd began to mutter ominously again. Anna needed to quell this quickly before they turned back into a mob.

"NO! We will let the Queen's Court administer justice to these criminals! Do not dishonor the name of Arendelle! Do not dishonor your Queen! Please! Arendelle is better than that. It's over, go back to your homes, take care of your families! Please! For me and my sister!" she implored them.

The sincere pleading in her voice penetrated the raging blood lust and brought the crowd to their senses. They calmed down. "You're sure the Queen is alive?" shouted one man.

"Yes, I saw her myself. She's hurt, but she's alive. They have her in the castle infirmary now. Go home to your families. We all have a lot of cleanup to do." The crowd nodded and slowly began to disburse toward the town. Anna and her guards stayed until there wasn't anyone but a few stragglers left in the square.

Nordholm rode up to them and saluted her. "Well done, Your Highness. I wasn't sure what I would do if they had charged us. We couldn't have fired on them, and they would have broken through our lines if you hadn't calmed them down."

"You're welcome, Colonel. Do you have everything in hand here?" Anna asked him.

"Yes, milady. Now that you've dispersed the crowd."

Anna reined her horse around and said, "Let's go, Captain. I need to see to my sister." And she spurred her horse into a gallop and headed back toward the castle before Eric could react. Cursing, he and his men rode after her.

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Anna slowed her horse from a gallop as she approached the demolished castle gates. She let the horse pick its way through the debris until they were in the courtyard. She cantered up to the portico where a Marine took the reins from her as she dismounted. She looked around at the scene; it was obvious that the Marines had been busy doing the necessary after-battle cleanup.

Over near the gates, there was a small group of mercenaries sitting on the ground, hands on their heads and being guarded, obviously prisoners. On the other side of the courtyard it looked as though an impromptu field hospital had been set up. Medics were tending to the wounded.

In front of the church, there was a row of bodies each covered with green or purple cloth. Anna gulped and walked over to the line. At each man's feet was his uniform cap; green shakos for the Queen's Own, blue kepis for the Marines. Anna counted five of each. There was a Marine standing at attention at the head of each casualty; as Anna stood with her head bowed, five of the men of the Queen's Own that had been with Anna approached and relieved the Marines standing guard over their comrades. Eric came up behind her and touched her shoulder.

"Your Highness, these men did their duty for Arendelle. We will honor them tomorrow. For now, you should go and see the Queen." Anna nodded and turned away. Eric came to attention, saluted the fallen men and followed her into the castle.

She stumbled a little as she walked; her vision was clouded with tears for the men who had died to save Elsa. It was easy to forget what their bodyguards were sworn to do at necessity. Anna knew that Elsa would see to the families of her fallen, but it would be small comfort for their loss.

When they got to the infirmary, it was very busy. The most severely wounded had been brought here and the battle surgeons fought to save them. Anna had to turn away from one table where an amputation was being performed. Four men were holding the screaming patient down and the grating of the saw against bone was the most horrible sound Anna had ever heard.

She hurried into the room where Elsa was being tended to.

Her sister was laying on a table on clean white sheet. Anna could see that her bloody clothes had been removed and she was covered with a sheet as well. The doctor was working on her wounded arm, cleaning the cut and wrapping it in fresh bandages. Elsa was apparently still unconscious as she wasn't reacting to the pain that this must be causing her. Anna went to stand next to her on the side where the doctor wasn't and brushed Elsa's hair back from her forehead. _"Oh, Elsa!" she thought._

The doctor finished working on Elsa's arm, then looked at Anna and said, "Your Highness, may I update you on the Queen's condition?"

Anna nodded and followed him. Directing several nurses to continue taking care of Elsa, he stopped to rinse his hands in a basin and take a towel from a nurse, then continued out to the hall.

He finished wiping his hands on the towel and turned to Anna. "Your Highness, the Queen's injuries are serious but not, I believe, life-threatening. The worst injury, of course, is the cut through her upper arm. The bleeding has stopped and I have cleaned it with carbolic acid and alcohol, so I am hopeful no infection will take hold. The dressing will need to be changed daily and the wound examined for festering or other signs of infection."

Anna nodded and he continued, "She has many minor cuts and bruises, and several large bruises where it appears she was kicked or punched. It does not appear that she has any broken bones. Right now, her breathing and heart rate are higher than normal. Both of these are her body trying to deal with the loss of blood. She is currently unconscious, and for a day or two at least when she is awake, confusion and anxiety are probable."

Frowning, Anna asked, "So what will you be doing for all of that?"

He looked at her with sympathy and said, "We will keep her warm and comfortable and encourage her to eat and drink as much as she can; soups and broths are going to be preferable to solid foods for a few days as we try to replace the fluids she's lost. I'll want her to drink as much tea with honey as she can, and warm milk."

"Can I go and be with her?" Anna asked.

The doctor nodded and said, "Certainly. Your presence will help her deal with the confusion and anxiety. We'll want her to stay in the infirmary for a few days until she has regained some of her strength, then she can move back to her own room and begin very light activity. I don't want her attempting her normal work routine for at least ten days, possibly two weeks."

"Thank you, doctor." Anna turned to go back into the room.

While Anna had been talking to the doctor, the nurses had apparently washed Elsa and dressed her in a warm nightgown, then moved her to a bed. She was lying under a blanket that was pulled up to her chin. Anna pushed a chair next to the bed, then reached under the blanket to take Elsa's hand in her own; it was colder than usual and felt clammy. Elsa's hands were usually cool, but dry. This felt different. Anna stroked her hand gently.

Elsa's eyes fluttered open and she looked around, clearly confused. "A..Anna?" she whispered, her voice weak.

"I'm right here, Elsa. You're in the infirmary but you'll be okay."

"Did we win? Are we safe? I lost so many of my guards! They … they …" Elsa stirred as though to sit up; Anna gently pressed on her shoulder to keep her lying flat.

"Yes, we won. We're all safe, the Weasels are locked up and when you're well we'll figure out how to explain to the Duke what a bad idea it is to take on the Snow Queen of Arendelle!" Anna kept holding Elsa's hand and caressed her cheek to reassure her.

"You were brilliant … sneaking out like that … I knew you could do ..." Elsa's voice trailed off as she fell asleep in the middle of the sentence.

Anna felt a touch on her shoulder. "Hey, Feisty Pants. You okay?" It was Kristoff. He had been left in the hall while the doctor had worked on Elsa.

She jumped to her feet and hugged him again. "Oh, Kristoff! It's terrible! She's hurt, and we lost so many men..."

Kristoff held her as she began to cry softly, patting her back to comfort her. "It's bad, Anna, but not as bad as letting men like the Duke take what they want. People would have starved this winter if Elsa hadn't figured out a way to stop them, and if you hadn't done your part by fooling them into letting you escape."

Anna pulled back from his embrace and wiped her cheeks. "She's the brave one. I was sitting around eating chocolates while they were beating her in the dungeon!"

"We can discuss who did what later, Your Highness, but for now, the Queen is asleep and we will take good care of her while you go bathe and change clothes." Gerda said. She had come into Elsa's room while Anna was hugging Kristoff.

"Are you sure, Gerda? I want to stay with Elsa," Anna said. She took Kristoff's hand.

"I am very sure, milady. For one thing, while the Queen is hurt, you are her Regent. I am sure the Admiral will be looking for you very shortly. There is much to be done," Gerda pointed out.

Anna hadn't thought of that. She took a deep breath, then turned to Kristoff and pulled him toward the door. "Come on. I need you to go find the Admiral and find out what's going on while I change. Tell him I'll meet him in the council room in two hours."

She stopped suddenly in the doorway, almost getting bowled over by Kristoff running into her. "Hang on."

She went back to the bedside and tenderly kissed Elsa's forehead. "Sleep, honey. I'll take care of everything while you get better. I'll be back as soon as I can," she reassured her sleeping sister, hoping she would understand. She thought she saw Elsa nod, a tiny movement that could have been her imagination.

It was enough. "Let's go," she said, and left the room.

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**A/N:** A terrific picture that I had commissioned is now available on my tumblr account. Follow the link in my profile!


	10. Worthy Queen of Greatness

Anna was trying to stifle a yawn; this council meeting had been going on since noon and she hadn't slept at all since yesterday. Throw in walking several miles in the dark, running back several miles leading a troop of Marines, then kicking the Weselton Commander in the head for threatening her sister, and it had been a long, busy day for Anna.

" … our casualties were relatively light, although it is likely we will lose at least two more men from the severity of their wounds." Colonel Nordholm was wrapping up his report on the aftermath of the battle.

"Not light for the families..." Anna muttered. She was still struggling to cope with their loss of troops, no, real men … men who had died defending her and her sister.

"I beg your pardon, Your Highness?" Nordholm asked.

"I said, our casualties were not light for the families of our men who died in this debacle," Anna raised her voice as she looked down the table at the Royal Council. "Is there anything else on your agenda that can't wait, Admiral?" Anna wanted to get back to her sister.

"No, Your Highness, everything is underway to repair any damage done by the battle, the attackers are under confinement at the Marine Barracks, and the task of returning the plunder they looted is well along," Naismith responded.

"Then this meeting is over. We'll reconvene the day after tomorrow at two o'clock. Thank you all," Anna dismissed them and hurried out of the room before they could rise and bow to her.

Nordholm and Naismith watched the council members leave; all except the Bishop. He shuffled papers until the others left, then looked up at his two colleagues with a small smile.

"There's some depth in that one," he commented.

"Just like her sister. Even though most people don't bother to look past the giddy exuberance," Naismith replied.

Nordholm chuckled, "You heard how she took charge of that troop of Marines, didn't you? Gunnarsson didn't know whether to spit or go blind when she sprang that on them. She was right, though. Legally AND tactically. That battle would have cost us a lot more if she hadn't led them back when she did."

Bishop Henrik Norgaard finished stuffing his papers into a portfolio and stood. "Possibly including the Queen. She was on her last dregs of strength when Anna ran up. Even if she had frozen that bastard, someone else probably would have killed her before you were able to force the gate." Norgaard wished he could use a stronger word to describe the Weselton boss, but he was a man of the cloth now, not the Marine he had been in his youth.

"How do you know that, Henrik? You weren't in the courtyard," Naismith asked.

"Sergeant Jorgensen told me. He's in the infirmary, hurt quite badly, but he'll recover. He was on the ground nearby when that Weselton dung pinned the Queen to the door, he knew it was the death of her. When she froze both of the swords, Jorgensen thought he was hallucinating." Norgaard related the entire story to his two colleagues as it had been told to him. They shook their heads in wonder.

"How is the Queen? I was too busy cleaning up the mess in the courtyard to get an update," asked Nordholm.

The three men walked down the hallway from the Council room. Nordgaard answered the colonel's question; he had been in the castle infirmary offering what comfort he could to the wounded and dying. "She will survive, but she'll be recovering for several weeks. That was a hell of an ordeal she put herself through, even before she was stabbed."

They emerged from the castle to the courtyard. Much of the debris and ruin from the battle had been cleaned up. The wounded had been moved to barracks, or to the castle infirmary. The dead had been taken to be prepared for funerals tomorrow. That's why there would be no council meeting. Arendelle would honor those who had sacrificed so much for their homeland.

"Would you gentlemen care to join me for dinner?" asked the Bishop.

"Not tonight, Henrik. We'll be at the Admiralty until the wee hours." Naismith said. Nordholm nodded in agreement with the Admiral.

The three men parted ways.

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The day after the battle Elsa had wanted to get out of her sickbed to attend the funerals of the men who had died for her and Arendelle. Anna and Gerda had told her no, that they would hide all her clothes before they would let her do that and she would look silly in her nightgown. When she threatened to make her own dress, Anna just said, "Try it." Elsa discovered she was still too weak to do her magic when all she could manage were a few snowflakes. She slumped back on her pillows in frustration, tears in her eyes.

Anna sat next to her, stroked her cheek and said, "Honey, I'll be there in your place. Everyone knows you almost died for us, what you were willing to risk to save the kingdom from these goons. After you're well again, we'll go visit the families. But today, you aren't strong enough to get out of this bed."

Elsa nodded sadly and squeezed Anna's hand. "I know, Anna, but I owe them so much," she whispered.

So Anna had to represent both of them when she put on her mourning clothes and honored the men who had sacrificed their lives for their Queen and kingdom. The two the Colonel had spoken of had indeed died, so twelve families had lost sons, husbands, fathers, brothers. Anna spoke to each one of them, knowing that nothing could fill that void but hoping she could offer some small comfort that their loss was felt by the Queen and Princess as if it were their own.

They had held the funerals in the castle courtyard in front of the church. The crowd was too large to hold it anywhere else. The coffins of each of the fallen men, draped with the flag of Arendelle, was on a caisson with a team of horses to pull it. Although they were holding a joint memorial, each family would then take their beloved to their own place of burial.

As the last caisson left the courtyard, followed by a family in mourning, Anna took Kristoff's hand in hers and leaned into him. He had been there for her, even though he had no official standing as anything other than a friend. He wrapped an arm around her to comfort her. "You okay, Anna?"

He felt her nod against his chest. "I will be. Those horrible weasels did this to us, Kristoff. All because the Duke is a greedy, vengeful little … little ..." She couldn't seem to come up with a word strong enough. "And he almost took **her** away from me again!"

They began to walk back into the castle. The memorial service had taken most of the morning and it was almost time for lunch. Kristoff was hoping he could convince Anna to take a nap after lunch; she hadn't slept much at all last night because she had spent the night at Elsa's bedside. "Let's eat, then check in on Elsa, okay?"

Anna nodded again, then, "Let me go change first. I'll meet you in the family dining room, okay?"

"I'll be there, Feisty Pants."

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After lunch they both went to the infirmary to visit with Elsa. Anna found Gerda first, to get an update before she talked to her sister. "She's fine, Your Highness, although she refused to sleep until she knew the services were complete. I think she felt it was the least she could do. She's been asleep for almost two hours, now. I was going to wake her to eat, she needs to build up her strength more than anything."

"You go bring her food, Gerda; Kristoff and I will make sure she eats it," Anna instructed.

They went into Elsa's room while Gerda left to get a tray prepared. Kristoff moved a chair next to the bed for Anna, then went to sit near the window.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Anna stroked her sister's cheek gently, noticing that tears were still drying. Elsa mourned even in her sleep, it appeared. Her eyes fluttered open and she reached for Anna's hand and squeezed it, so weakly it made Anna's heart clench.

"Hi," was the whispered response. Elsa smiled to see Anna.

Gerda bustled in with a laden tray just then and said, "Time for lunch, Your Majesty." Setting it down on the side table, she looked at Kristoff and asked, "Would you help Princess Anna sit Her Majesty up while I arrange her pillows?"

When Elsa was sitting up comfortably with the tray in her lap, she looked at all the dishes with dismay, "I can't eat all of that!"

"I'll help finish it, but you need to eat and drink as much as you can, honey," Anna tucked a napkin under her sister's chin, then offered her a mug of tea. "Are you strong enough to hold this, or should I?"

"I can do it," Elsa smiled at her. "I'm not used to being this pampered, you know!"

After lunch, Gerda took the tray away. "I'll leave the teapot and some mugs, Your Majesty. You need to drink as much as you can."

"Do you want to lie back down, Elsa?" Anna asked her.

"No, I'm comfortable sitting up for now," she yawned, which set off a sympathetic reaction in Anna.

It wasn't long before both of them were fast asleep, Elsa on her pillows, and Anna with her head on her sister's lap. Kristoff was content to sit comfortably by the window and watch over them.

When Gerda returned to find the two sleeping girls, she clucked and shook her head. Kristoff put his fingers to his lips to indicate silence, then walked quietly out of the room, motioning for Gerda to follow him.

"Gerda, she didn't sleep very well sitting up in a chair last night," he began. Gerda held up her hand to stop him from going any further.

"I know, Master Kristoff. We'll be moving another bed in here later this afternoon. We both know she's not leaving Elsa's side, and I will make sure it's comfortable for her tonight," Gerda assured him.

"Thank you. I need to go help with some of the cleanup. Will you please tell Anna I'll meet her for dinner?" Kristoff asked Gerda a little nervously. He was still unsure of his standing in the castle.

Gerda reached out to pat his arm, "I will convey your message to her. Now, shoo! I'll take care of both of them," she said, a twinkle in her eye as he blushed and left.

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There was no sound in the library except the crackle of the fire and a snap and a pop as one of the logs burned through a knot in the wood with a flash of sparks. The fire had burned down to a gentle flickering orange glow, and Anna thought that she should put a few more logs on. But she would have to get up and disturb the woman sleeping in her lap to do that, and it was just too comfortable to remain sprawled on the couch, tenderly running her hands through Elsa's hair and holding her close.

It had been almost a week since they had taken back the kingdom from the Weselton invasion. Repairs to the castle were almost complete.

As Regent, Anna was still spending most of each day with the Admiral and the rest of the Royal Council, dealing with the aftermath of the attack. The survivors of the attacking force would be tried in the Admiralty Court for piracy and murder.

The Council still hadn't discussed how to send a strong message back to the Duke. It could wait until Elsa was completely healthy. He'd be shaking in his high-heeled boots when his pirate fleet didn't return on schedule, anyway. Let the little weasel squirm for a while. In the meantime, the Navy would board and search every ship seeking harbor in Arendelle, no matter how innocent it seemed. The Admiral had some ideas about how to avoid future surprises; Anna gave him permission to start putting them in motion and review them with Elsa when she was back at work.

Anna had a pretty low tolerance for bureaucratic nonsense, so she made sure the Council meetings moved along briskly and ended at a reasonable hour; she had more important things to do, like be with her sister.

Three days after the battle the doctor had allowed Elsa to be moved back to her own bedroom. Every evening since then Anna and Kristoff had helped her walk to the library after dinner, where they could enjoy the fire and each other's company. And snacks. Anna had interpreted "warm milk" to include hot chocolate, which helped lift Elsa's spirits.

The remnants of tonight's snack lay on the floor, empty cups on saucers and crumb-filled plates. The cooks had been on a mission to outdo themselves, so glad were they to have their royals back safe and sound. Mostly sound. Anna frowned as her hand felt the bandage on Elsa's arm, bulky beneath the sleeve of her dressing gown. _"Damn that bastard. Hanging is too good for him. Drawing and quartering would be too good for him." _But hanging it would be, after a trial for piracy and murder.

After the trials, the Commander would not be the only one to hang. Those few convicted of lesser offenses would be offered the choice of imprisonment in Arendelle and hard labor in the mines, or transport to a kingdom where they were wanted for previous crimes. Some would choose to stay; others were so terrified of the Snow Queen that they would take their chances with the justice of other kingdoms, even with a possible death sentence awaiting them.

Anna was dozing again when the door opened and someone tiptoed up to the couch where she lay cradling Elsa in her arms. It was Kristoff looking in on the two women. He smiled at the tableau, then added a few logs to the fire as quietly as he could. Satisfied, he went to sit on the floor with his back resting against the couch, his head close to Anna's. She stirred as she sensed him, then whispered, "Kristoff?"

"It's me, Feisty Pants. Had to check up on you two. Go back to sleep. You both need it."

Anna smiled and reached down to wrap the arm she didn't have around Elsa across Kristoff's chest. He put his hand up to cover hers and patted it affectionately. A deep contented sigh whispered into Kristoff's ear. With Kristoff in one arm and her sister in the other, Anna felt peace and warmth and love. Snuggled between the two people she loved most, she felt truly at home, perhaps more than she ever had before in her life.

Some warm timeless period later, Kristoff stirred, patted Anna's arm and turned his head to whisper, "Hey, don't you think it's time to go to sleep in a real bed?"

Anna blinked to wake from her doze, looked down at the Elsa-shaped blanket covering her and whispered back, "I hate to wake her. She's still so weak..." and stroked her sister's hair. Elsa snuggled deeper into Anna's hug and mewled a contented sound that caused Anna to chuckle softly.

"I can handle that, Feisty Pants. Hold still and let me carry her," Kristoff offered.

He stood and carefully put his arms under Elsa's knees and shoulders and lifted to carry her with her head resting on his shoulder, the way a husband would carry his bride across the threshold on their wedding night.

Ignoring the tingle that Kristoff's touch had aroused in her as he scooped up her sister, and a brief vision of herself in Kristoff's arms crossing the threshold to **their** wedding night, Anna hopped off the couch and went to open the door for him. They headed down the hallway toward Elsa's bedroom.

A sideways glance at him surprised Anna; Kristoff had the gentlest smile on his face as he looked down at the sleeping woman in his arms. It called up a childhood memory for Anna. Elsa always played with Anna but sometimes the younger sister's exuberance wore her out and Elsa would fall asleep in the middle of some evening activity. When that happened their father would lift his sleeping daughter into his arms to take her and tuck her into bed. Anna knew it was a true memory because the only magic involved was the magic of a father's love for his children.

Anna felt the tingle again as her thoughts considered how Kristoff would carry their child to be tucked into bed.

"_Wait, what?"_ Two crazy visions in the space of a few seconds. Anna tried to stifle that wild imagination of hers. _"Cold, cold, cold, think ice, Anna!"_ she chided herself. She'd only known him for three months, it was far too soon to be thinking of wedding nights and tucking imaginary children into imaginary beds.

She held the door open for him again and he carefully laid Elsa down on her bed. She stirred but didn't wake.

He turned and walked to the door and softly said, "See you tomorrow?"

"Sure, you know it!" Anna got on tiptoes to give him what she had intended to be a chaste peck on the lips. Her body betrayed her and the kiss became far more intense than planned. Kristoff was caught in the moment, too, and returned her passion with his own. They backed away from each other after only a few seconds and Anna could see the blush on his fair complexion even in the soft candlelight. She could tell from the heat in her own cheeks that a look in the mirror would show the same coloring on her face.

"Uh, well, goodnight then," Kristoff mumbled and left, closing the door quietly behind him. Anna stood looking at the door wondering where the heat that seemed to be spreading all through her body was coming from.

"Are you really kissing your boyfriend in MY bedroom?" chuckled a soft voice behind her. Anna whirled to see that Elsa was awake and propping herself up on one elbow, disheveled bangs hanging over her forehead.

"He's not my boyfriend," protested Anna. Elsa arched one eyebrow and smirked.

"Not yet. Maybe. Eventually. And anyway, would you rather I kissed him in MY bedroom?" Anna put her hands on her hips and tried to look indignant.

Elsa giggled, "Now that you mention it, probably not." She began to sit up and Anna ran to help her.

"Come on, Elsa, let me help you get that robe off and then both of us need to sleep for real." The bandages on her arm made it difficult for Elsa to remove the robe herself.

Comfortably snuggled under the blankets, Elsa arranged herself so she could lay her head in the crook of Anna's neck, put her bandaged arm across Anna's body in a hug and sighed with contentment. Anna chuckled and said, "_Verðug dróttning stór"._

"What?" Elsa mumbled, half asleep.

"It's Old Norse: 'Worthy Queen of Greatness'. That's what you are, the worthy Queen of Greatness. They sang it at your Coronation, don't you remember?"

Elsa was fully awake now. "No, actually. I was so anxious and afraid of freezing something over I didn't hear anything but a loud buzzing hum that faded in and out. I kept staring at the pillow with the orb and scepter and shaking. When the Bishop told me to take off my gloves I thought I would faint." Her voice was muffled and sad as she buried her face in Anna's shoulder.

Anna hugged Elsa a little closer. "Oh, Elsa, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize."

"S'okay. We lived through it." Anna felt Elsa take a deep, shaky breath.

"I'll sing it for you now. I thought it was so beautiful and appropriate for you."

Anna began to sing softly,

_Verðug dróttning stór (Worthy Queen of greatness)  
>Hjarta af gulli skína (The heart of Gold shines)<br>Kronum þik med vánum, ást ok trú. (We crown thee with hope, love and faith.)  
>Fagra, grýttur land, heimr Árnadalr. (Beautiful, stoney land, home Arendelle)<br>Fylgið dróttningu ljóssins. (Follow the Queen of light)_

As Elsa listened the song didn't make her feel worthy, it brought her guilt and shame back to the surface. Her fear of the stake had let her think of abandoning Anna, of abandoning her duty as Queen rather than face what the Duke had planned for her. How could she admit what she had considered doing? She was afraid she would see contempt in her sister's eyes at the confession. Elsa had suppressed her guilt since her rescue, now there it was again, choking her. She began to cry almost inaudibly.

"Hey, my singing isn't that bad!" Anna didn't know why Elsa was crying and she was unsettled by it.

"It's not your singing; your voice is beautiful. It's like an angel came down from heaven just to sing to me." Elsa sniffled and went on, "It's me."

"Huh? Elsa, I'm not good at riddles this late at night, what are you talking about?" Anna prompted.

Elsa pushed off the covers and sat up. She put her arms around her knees and looked away from Anna. "I'm not worthy. I … I'm a coward."

Now Anna was sitting up too. "Elsa, you aren't making any sense. After all the incredibly courageous things you did during this whole mess, how can you say that?"

Elsa wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and said, "Because it's true. If you hadn't managed to escape, if they had taken us on those ships to go back to Weselton, I would have taken the coward's way out. I wouldn't have let them take me there alive." She put her head down on her knees and wept again. "And I would have … ab … abandoned you to them," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry, Anna."

Anna got up on her knees and hugged Elsa, trying to comfort her. "Elsa, Elsa, please don't cry. They were nasty bastards for sure, but ..."

Elsa shook her off, got out of bed and staggered slightly as she walked over to sit in the window bay. "You don't understand," she said harshly. She looked out the window; she couldn't look at her sister, she was too ashamed.

Anna sat on the side of the bed and said slowly, "You're absolutely correct. I don't understand. Please, tell me. We promised each other, no more secrets. There's something here you're not telling me, something I need to understand, because whatever it is, it's hurting you. Please?"

Anna held her breath, hoping that Elsa would share whatever was causing her so much pain. She had no idea why her sister felt guilty, but she needed to understand.

Elsa finally took a deep breath and in a faltering voice began to tell Anna about the horrible nightmare she had about being burned as a witch. Her description of the dream was so vivid that Anna could see it and smell it and feel it, just like her sister must have. The retelling of it was so real that Anna got queasy; she thought she'd vomit at the vision of her sister suffering that torture. She held it down and listened intently as Elsa got to the part about how the picture of Joan of Arc had first intrigued her and then led to reading the history that scared her senseless as an eight-year old.

"...and then after Mama and Papa died, I eventually told Kai to sell the painting. I hadn't gone into that room in almost ten years; I couldn't as long as there was a chance I'd look at it and see myself burn all over again. And then, in that dungeon, I did," Elsa's voice trailed off and she put her head down on her knees and whimpered. "All I could think of was saving myself; and I had promised I'd never abandon you again."

Anna was stunned. In all that they had been through that week, she would never have imagined this. Her heart was broken to think that Elsa had been dealing with that childhood terror in addition to everything else that she had put herself through. She got up and went to the window.

Reaching out gently, she patted Elsa's shoulder and said, "It's okay, Elsa. There's nothing for you to feel guilty about. Come on, let me take you back to bed now."

She took her sister's hand and led her back to bed, got them both under the covers and wrapped her sister in a hug. She held Elsa close and let her cry herself out, cuddling her and comforting her as best she could.

Eventually Elsa stopped crying; Anna could tell when her breathing slowed and her shoulders stopped trembling. She hoped Elsa had finally fallen asleep, but instead she heard a soft whisper, "So that's why I'm not worthy."

Anna thought a moment, then said, "Elsa, that story makes me think you're even more worthy. Joan of Arc was a special hero to me; I talked to her painting all the time. Well, until it disappeared. But I think I read more about her than you did, and I was older when I did. If we HAD been taken to Weselton, with that horror waiting for you at the end of the trip, I would have helped you do whatever was necessary to escape that."

Elsa sniffled and said, "You … you would?"

Anna's voice quavered as she fought back her own tears, "There is no way on this earth that I would ever have let you go through that kind of agony. I would have died first. Again. So you know I'm serious here."

Anna hugged her sister even tighter, then continued, "You wouldn't have abandoned me; I would have … gone with you. We would have been together. F … forever."

Elsa was quiet for long moments as she absorbed what Anna had said, her sister's unconditional love and acceptance banishing her guilt and shame and filling her with a quiet peace for the first time in two weeks.

"I'm sorry I took the painting of your hero from you," Elsa finally managed to murmur.

Anna shook her a little, "Don't be. St. Joan's still a hero to me, even without a picture to remind me. But I've got a bigger hero now: you. My Worthy Queen of Greatness!" And she kissed Elsa tenderly.

Elsa smiled and said, "And I have you, my very own Queen of Light."

"PRINCESS of Light."

"Goof."

"Stinker."

~fin~

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**Author's final notes:**

"_heimr Árnadalr" _is what the choir was singing at Elsa's coronation in the movie. It is beautiful. The music is by Christophe Beck, lyrics by Christine Hals, a noted Scandanavian musician. She also provides vocals. Go find her blog; it turns out that some of the music you think is a musical instrument is really her singing! There are some interesting links about it on my tumblr page, I recommend you follow them for more information. I'm sure Anna did the song justice! _**grrlgeek72 dot tumblr dot com**_ You guys know the drill.

Hope you enjoyed the ride. Again, please review if you liked it. Feedback is a wonderful thing!

Speaking of feedback, as always I must thank stillslightlynerdy for her help and editing. This story is much stronger because of her suggestions and corrections. Any remaining errors are mine alone.

Not sure where I'm going after this story. One of the reasons I wrote it was (besides the inspiration of that amazing, evocative picture!) was that my other stories were a fairly complete timeline leading up to Anna and Kristoff's official engagement at the end of "Beautiful, Powerful, Dangerous, Cold", and that timeline didn't have a lot of room left in it for dramatic, plot-driven stories in it, which is what I think I'm writing. After all, how many times can Weselton invade Arendelle? Or Elsa be threatened by a political plot? Arendelle is a small, sleepy kingdom, and no one would care about it if it weren't for the Snow Queen.

This 'alternate' timeline is darker than the other one; Elsa would lose ground on her healing after the trauma of this story. So maybe I'll explore this timeline more, a timeline with a more broken Elsa. Authorial privilege, right?

I'm not into weddings or childbirth, so that sort of story is right out. I love Anna and see her as a competent, loving sidekick to her sister, but I still focus on Elsa. What to do, what to do...oh, wait! I haven't tortured Kristoff yet! Hmm...

I have a 14,000+ word alternate ending to "The Spare", but 'alternate' implies 'not happy' and boy, howdy is it not happy. It's not finished yet, it might not ever see the light of day.

And one story idea did come to me the other day, but I think it will wind up as a chapter in "Walk In The Park", if I can keep it short enough. Which may not be possible; my muse does the story writing, I just type. "Do The Magic!" was supposed to be a short one-shot. Ha!

If you guys have any opinions, feel free to PM me. In the meantime, I'll putz around on tumblr and finish my Kristoff tribute video.

And beta "Queen's Rook" by stillslightlynerdy, which is a great story and if you haven't read it yet, you should. It's just getting to the good parts!


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